/ 









PERSONAL 



HISTORY OF LORD BACON. 



FROM UNPUBLISHED PAPERS. 



HISTOEICAL MEMOIRS 

By THE SAME AUTHOR. 

JOHN HOWARD : A Memoie. 

ROBERT BLAKE : Admiral and General at Sea. 

WILLIAM PENN: An Historical Biography. With a Reply to 
Lord Macaulay's charges against Perm. 

THE LONDON PRISONS : With some account of the most celebrated 
persons confined in them. 







PERSONAL 



HISTORY OF LORD BACON. 



FROM UNPUBLISHED PAPERS. 



By WILLIAM HEPWORTH DIXON 

H 

OF THE INNER TEMPLE. 



LONDON: 

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 

1861. 

The right of Translation is reserved. 



^ 



^ 

*& 



LONDON r PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD 6TKEKI, 
AKD CHARING CROSS. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP TEE I. 

The Biographers. 

Page 

1. Art and nature 1 

2. Pope's satire on Bacon 2 

3. Can one be good and evil ? 2 

4. Traducers of Bacon 2 

5. Corruption of Pope's period 3 

6. Difference between contemporary libels and modern satires . . 4 

7. Hume, Hallam, Lingard, and Macaulay 4 

8. Lord Campbell's Life of Bacon 5 

9. Importance of a true estimate . . . . . . 6 

10. Bacon among bis competitors 6 

11. His rise in life slow and late 7 

12. Why was his rise deferred ? 7 

13. Difficulties of the satirical theory 7 

14. The questions proposed for illustration 8 

15. Careers of his chief political contemporaries 9 

16. His chief legal contemporaries 9 

17. True critics judge by the whole , . 10 

18. Spedding's edition of Bacon's works 10 



CHAPTER II. 

Early Years. 

1. Picture of Bacon in his youth 12 

2. Moral beauty of his early life 13 

3. The Bacon household. Lady Ann and her two sons .. .. 14 
"4. Bacon at Gray's Inn. In the House of Commons. His early 

style 16 

Bacon to Wylie, July 11, 1580 16 

Burghley's relation to him • . . . . 18 

*4. Bacon's early parliament life 18 

6. Character of the sessions in which he serves 20 



vi CONTENTS. 

Page 

r^t. His rivals in the House of Commons .. 20 

8. His personal appearance at twenty-four 22 

9. Session of 1586. Bacon represents Taunton 22 

10. Excitement in the country 23 

11. Mary Queen of Scots 24 

12. Popular demand for her execution 25 

13. The forged libels against Elizabeth 26 

u!4. Bacon's fame as a member of Parliament 27 

15. Session of 1589. Bacon's speech on subsidies 27 

16. Anthony comes home. The brothers at Gray's Inn Square. Sir 

Nicholas Bacon. Dealings with the Jews .. .. - .. .. 28 

17. A Queen's ward 30 

Bacon to Lady Ann, Feb. 18,-1592 30 

Lady Ann's care of her son. Good advice 31 

Lady Ann to Anthony Bacon, May 24, 1592 31 

The brothers set up a coach. Lady Ann's objections to it . . 32 

18. Session of 1593. Principal members of the Commons. War 

and plague. State of London 33 

19. Bacon proposes his great law reform 34 

20. Check to the Government. Lord Campbell's mistake .. .. 35 

21. Burghley's proposal for double subsidies 35 

22. Bacon's famous speech and defeat of the Crown 36 

23. Bacon defends his speech 38 

24. Raleigh proposes a compromise 38 

25. Defeat of the Government 39 



CHAPTEE III. 

The Eael of Essex. 

1. A candidate for office. Edward Coke „ .. 41 

2. Catherine Carey. Her grandson. Eobert Devereux Earl of 

Essex 42 

3. Scandals against Queen Elizabeth 43 

4. Elizabeth's relation to Essex 44 

l^S. Essex and Francis Bacon. Bacon's poverty 45 

Bacon to Lady Ann, Apl. 16, 1593 46 

6. The brothers in debt. Designs for raising money. Spencer the 

miser 47 

Bacon to Mr. Spencer, Sep. 19, 1593 47 

7. Bacon sick i 48 

Bacon to Lady Paulett, Sep. 23, 1593 48 

8. Anthony and Francis enter the Earl's service 49 



CONTENTS. vn 

Page 

9. Duns at Gray's Inn 50 

Bacon to Lady Ann, Oct. 3,1593 50 

Ditto, Nov. 2, J593 .. .. 51 

10. Bacon's prospects dashed by Essex 52 

Essex to Francis Bacon, Mar. 24, 1594 , 52 

11. Bacon's surprise and resolution 53 

Bacon to Sir Booert Cecil, May 1, 1594 53 

Cecil's good wishes 54 

Cecil to Bacon, M ay 1, 1594 54 

12. Sickness of his mother .. .. 54 

Bacon to Lady Ann, June 9, 1594 55 

13. Visit to Gorhambury. Anthony's easy nature 56 

Lady Ann to Francis Bacon, Aug. 20, 1594 56 

Bad news at court 57 

Francis to Anthony Bacon, Aug. 26, 1594 57 

Lady Ann cautions her son against the Earl 58 

14. The Koman League 59 

15. Bacon sick. Lady Ann's consolations .. 59 

Lady Ann to Anthony Bacon, June 3, 1595 60 

The Queen's bounty to Bacon. She appoints him her Learned 

Counsel and gives him the Pitts 60 

16. Lady Ann to Anthony Bacon, Aug. 7, 1595 61 

17. Sir Walter Baleigh. Bacon's proposed compliment to the 

Guiana voyage 62 

18. Essex jealous. Burghley and Cecil support Baleigh's voyage. 63 

19. Fleming made Solicitor-General 63 

20. The error about Twickenham Park 64 

21. Essex' patch of meadow 65 

22. Elizabeth's munificence to Bacon 66 

23. She grants him a reversion of Twickenham Park 67 



CHAPTEE IV. 

Treason of Sir John Smyth. 

1. Bacon's legal employments 69 

2. Expedition sails for Cadiz 69 

Francis to Anthony Bacon, May 15, 1596 70 

Ditto, May 31, 1596 70 

3. Essex' superfluous kindness 71 

Essex to Egerton, May 27,1596 72 

4. Excitement in the country . . 72 

5. Sir John Smyth 73 

6. Attempt to excite mutiny 75 



vin CONTENTS. 

Page 

7. Bacon one of the commissioners to take his examination. De- 

clares the crime high treason 76 

8. News from Cadiz 77 

9. Discontent of Essex. Cecil Secretary of State. Lady Ann's 

warnings to her sons 78 

Lady Ann to Anthony Bacon, July 10, 1596 79 

Bacon's differences with Essex 80 

10. They cease their intercourse. Francis in love. Lady Hatton 

and her suitors 81 

11. Essex deserts his post. Falls under the sway of Sir Christopher 

Blount 82 

12. Lady Leicester and her children 83 

13. Blount 84 

14. Blount's influence. Essex' choice between Bacon and Blount 85 

15. Session of 1597. Bacon member for Ipswich 86 

16. Great motion on the State of the Country 87 

17. Yeomen and the land. Deer and parks 88 

18. Jesuits on the land question 89 

19. Bacon's proposals „ 90 

20. Conference with the Lords 90 

21. Essex opposes Bacon's bills 91 

22. Success of Bacon's measures 91 

23. Grant of Cheltenham and Charlton Kings 92 

CHAPTER V. 

The Irish Plot. 

1. Roman Catholic conspiracy at Essex House 94 

2. Plan of the plotters 95 

3. Irish insurrection 96 

4. Movement of English troops 97 

5. Essex gains the command ' 97 

6. Coke marries Lady Hatton 98 

7. Essex visits Gray's Inn. Bacon's advice rejected 99 

8. The Jesuits approve the plot 100 

9. Roman Catholics in command - 100 

10. Lord Southampton 101 

11. Essex confers with O'Neile .. 102 

12. Armaments in England. Essex returns .. ■ 103 

13. Shakespeare's Richard the Second. Essex arrested .. .. 104 

14. Montjoy goes to Dublin. Wood's confession 104 

15. Essex deserted by all save Bacon . . . . . . . . . , . . 106 

16. Bacon's generosity 107 



CONTENTS. ix 

Page 

17. Bacon ignorant of Essex' real crimes 107 

18. Intercedes with the Queen 108 

19. Hayward's seditions tract 109 

20. Curious conversation of Bacon and Elizabeth 110 

21. Bacon's note to Howard 110 

22. Essex liberated. The Queen's pledge Ill 

CHAPTEE VI. 

The Street Fight. 

1. The plot renewed 113 

2. Catesby, Wright, and Winter 114 

3. Proposal to assassinate the Queen 114 

4. Valentine Thomas' secret mission 115 

Points of Thomas 1 confession 115 

The secret kept .. .. 116 

5. Attempt on Baleigh . . 117 

6. The conspirators resolve to rise 117 

7. Send for Phillips to Essex House. Shakespeare's play performed 118 

8. The street demonstration 118 

9. Elizabeth at Whitehall 119 

10. Fight in the city. The conspirators in jail . . .. 119 

11. Essex put on trial 120 

12. Bacon's speech 121 

13. Essex confesses against his accomplices 124 

14. Elizabeth's gifts to Bacon 124 

Council to Coke, Aug. 6, 1601 125 

15. Mysterious escape of Monteagle from justice 126 

16. Lord Campbell's judgment of Bacon's conduct 127 

17. Contemporary opinions. Double elections for Ipswich and St. 

Albans .. 128 

CHAPTER VII. 

The New Reign. 

1. Desire of James for peace with Spain 180 

2. Bacon and the new court .. 131 

3. The session of 1604. Election of Speaker 132 

4. Grievances of the Commons. Union with Scotland .. .. 133 

5. Bacon's position in the House 134 

6. Lord Campbell's errors 135 

7. Alice Barnham .. 136 

8. Alice Bar nharns mother and sisters .. .. 137 



x CONTENTS. 

Page 

9. Sir John Pakington 138 

10. Westwood Park 140 

11. Bacon in love 141 

12. The Powder Plot 142 

Bacon to Cecil, Nov. 8, 1605 .. 143 

13. Bacon's tolerance. Case of Tobie Mathews 143 

14. Sir John and the ladies in London 145 

15. Differences between Sir John and Bacon. Bacon's political 

views 146 

16. Cecil consults him on the money bills '.. .. 149 

Bacon to Cecil, Feb. 10, 1606 149 

17. "Warm debate on subsidies 150 

18. Bacon's fears of a division 150 

Bacon to Cecil, Mar. 22, 1606 151 

Rumour that the King is slain , 152 

19. Bacon's speech 152 

20. Proposes to Alice. His worldly position and prospects . . 153 

21. The wedding feast. Alice's dowry 154 

22. A new disappointment. Egerton's suggestion 156 

23. The Government in difficulties. Bacon conciliated . . . . 156 

24. Fuller's speech against the Scots 158 

25. Bacon's reply 159 

26. Bacon appointed Solicitor-General 161 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

Solicttor-Gekekal. 

1. Six years of office 162 

2. Cecil's riches and prosperity 162 

3. Bacon's ceremonial politeness with his cousin 163 

Bacon to Cecil, Aug. 24, 1608 • .. 164 

Essay on Deformity .. 164 

4. The Court of Wales ' 165 

5. Sir John Pakington's quarrel with Lord Eure 166 

6. Bacon argues against Pakington 167 

7. Bacon one of the founders of America 167 

8. England and Spain as colonists „ 168 

9. Spanish designs against Virginia. Fleet under Gates and 

Summers 169 

10. The city of Raleigh .. .. 170 

11. The Solicitor in opposition .. 171 

12. Crown privileges for sale 172 

13. Coke against Bacon 172 



CONTENTS. xi 



14. Bacon's speech on the feudal burthens 173 

15. Bargains made and broken 173 

16. Death of Cecil. Bacon's answer to James 174 

17. Bacon proposed for Secretary of State 175 

18. Court of Wards 175 

Bacon to Lord Rochester, Nov. 14, 1612 175 

Wards and Liveries .. .; 176 

19. Ireland .. .. 176 

20. Sir Arthur Chichester's government 177 

21. Irish members in London. Bacon's advice 178 

Bacon to King James, Aug. 13, 1613 179 

22. Bacon made Attorney-General. Coke indignant 181 

23. A new session. Bacon returned for Cambridge, Ipswich, and 

St. Albans. Sits for Cambridge 181 

24. Curious debate on these elections. Vast popularity of the 

Attorney-General 183 



CHAPTEK IX. 

St. John and Peacham. 

1. Lord Campbell's omissions .. 185 

2. Offence of Oliver St. John .. 185 

3. St. John sent to the Tower 186 

4. His amazing abjectness 187 

St. John to the King 188 

5. Lord Campbell's mistakes .. 189 

6. The case of Peacham 190 

7. His infamous character 191 

8. Difficulty suggested by Hallam. Peacham libels his bishop 191 

9. Condemned by Archbishop Abbott 192 

10. Discovery of his political libels 193 

11. Peacham's accusation of his patron John Paulett 194 

12. Commission of examination 195 

13. Question by torture 196 

14. Character of the age 198 

15. Bacon opposed to judicial torture -.. 198 

16. Peacham's condemnation 200 

17. Confession 200 

18. Macaulay's assertion on the practice of consulting the judges 202 

19. The precedent of Legate 203 

20. Charge against Paulett abandoned 203 



xii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE X. 

Race with Coke. 

Page 

1. Bacon«&nd Somerset .. .. .. ', 205 

2. Character and policy of Somerset 20o 

3. The Romanist party at Court. Lacly Somerset. Murder of 

Overbury .; ..' 206 

4. Publication of 'The Wife.' .. 207 

5. Inquiry into the crime. Rise of Villiers 208 

6. Trial of the murderers .. .. .. .. 209 

7. The Earl and Countess arraigned 210 

8. Bacon pleads for clemency 211 

9. Bacon's domestic trials. Sir John quarrels with Lady Pakington. 

Warrant of search . ., 211 

10. Lady Pakington tries to rule Bacon. His defence .. .. 213 
Bacon to Lady Pakington, 1616 ... ,. 214 

11. Sir William and Sir Thomas Monson 214 

12. Bacon's efforts to save them. Coke's animosity 216 

Bacon to Coke, Apl. 16, 1616 (?) 216 

13. Popular feeling against Sir Thomas 216 

14. Fall of Coke .. \ 217 

15. Case of Commendams .. 217 

16. James' message to Coke through Bacon .. 219 

17. His message direct 220 

18. The judges on their trial 220 

19. Bacon defends himself against Coke .. .. 221 

20. Coke condemned by Egerton . . 221 

21. Bacon sworn of the Council. Procures the restoration of Dr. 

Burgess. .. 222 

22. Coke in the Star Chamber 223 

23. Lady Hatton deserts him . , . . 224 

24. Monson's case referred to Bacon 224 

Bacon to the King, Dec. 7,1616 225 

Monson pardoned 226 

25. Illness of Egerton. Public business .. 226 

26. Mysterious tale of Lady Arabella having borne a son. Bacon's 

inquiry 227 

27. Bacon receives the Seals 229 



CONTENTS. xm 

CHAPTER XL 

Lord Chancellor. 

Page 
l.RageofCoke 231 

2. Story of Ege'rton's later days 232 

3 . The gold and silver thread business . . . . . . . . . . 233 

4. Egerton opposes the patent to Mompesson 234 

5. Buckingham seeks his ruin 234 

6. Buckingham loses by the transfer of the Seals to Bacon .. 235 

7. Coke's insinuations against Bacon . . . . 235 

8. Lady Hatton ..' 236 

9. Frances Coke sold to Sir John Villiers. Lady Hatton's opposi- 

tion. Escape to Oatlands 236 

10. Bacon refuses Lady Buckingham's request for warrants of arrest 238 

11. Coke breaks into Withi pole's house. His wife appeals to the 

Council 239 

12. Coke, threatened with proceedings, submits 240 

13. Lord Campbell's errors 241 

14. Buckingham's interference 242 

15. Marriage of Sir John Villiers and Frances Coke 242 

16. Domestic broils of Sir John Pakington. Bacon's delicacy and 

consideration 243 

Chamberlain to Oarleton, July 5, 1617 24.4 

17. Bacon's rise and prosperity 244 

18. Suddenness of his fall .. .. .. .. 245 



CHAPTER XII. 
Fees. 

1. Universality of fees 246 

2. Fees in Government offices 246 

3. Fees on the bench .. 247 

4. Fees at the bar 248 

5. Fees not an old grievance .. .. .. 249 

6. Bills to limit fees rejected by the Commons . . ... . . . . 250 

Sir Francis Bacon's speech on fees in 1606 250 

7. Desire to change the system . . . . . . 254 

8. Lady Buckingham hostile to Bacon. Sir Lionel Cranfield. Sir 

James Ley 255 

9. Suffolk prosecuted and ruined . . .... 256 

10. Sir Henry Yelverton .. 257 

11. Prosecuted in Star Chamber 258 

Bacon's notes of a speech, Nov. 10, 1620 258 



xiv CONTENTS. 



Yelverton condemned . 259 

12. Montagu becomes Treasurer 259 

13. Coventry Attorney 260 

14. Character of Cranfield 260 

15. His ambition and unscrupulousness .. ..' .. .. ... 261 

16. Lady Buckingham's lover, John Williams 262 

17. The confederacy against Bacon 263 

18. John Churchill 264 

19. The new session - .. .. 265 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

The Accusation. 

1. An empty Treasury. Bacon's jest 266 

2. Bacon proposes a new parliament. Foreign affairs .. .. 266 

3. Agitation in England 268 

4. Bacon proposes reform 268 

5. Preliminaries of the session 269 

Bacon and others to Buckingham, Nov. 29, 1620 269 

6. Writs go out. James alarmed by the elections 273 

7. Stern character of the new parliament. Eage against Papists 274 

8. Coke heads the fanatics 275 

9. Bacon's tolerance unpopular 275 

10. Coke takes advantage of it 276 

11. Inquiry into abuses welcomed by Bacon .. 276 

12. Quarrel of Scrope and Berkshire. Bacon offends Lady Buck- 

ingham 277 

13. Cranfield attacks the Chancery 278 

14. Buckingham urges the Commons to demand victims ..- .. 278 

15. Aubrey and Egerton's cases brought forward 280 

16. Heneage Finch defends Bacon 281 

17. Churchill's evidence 282 

18. Bacon's confidence 283 

19. Bacon sick. His remarks on the accusation. Declaration of 

his innocence 283 

20. The twenty- two charges 284 

21. The case sent up to the Lords 286 

22. Ley appointed to preside 287 

23. Bacon's self-examination .. .. 287 

24. Preliminary vote in the Peers 288 

25. Bacon's confession 289 

26. Ley delivers sentence 290 



CONTENTS. xv 

CHAPTER XIV. 

After Sentence. 

Page 

1. Bacon's statement of the case 291 

2. End of the movement for reform 291 

3. Division of spoil among the confederates. Fall of Montagu 292 

4. Bacon's fine remitted 293 

5. Busy with his books. His witty sayings. Applies for the 

Provostship of Eton 294 

Bacon to Conway, Mar. 25, 1623 295 

6. Conway supports his suit 295 

Bacon to Conway, Mar. 29, 1623 . . 296 

Dignity of Bacon's conduct 297 

7. Bacon to King James, Mar. 29, 1623 .297 

Ditto Conway, Apl. 23, 1623 298 

8. Ditto, Sep. 2, 1623 298 

Buckingham adverse. Provostship given to Sir Henry Wotton 299 

9. Bacon's literary work 299 

10. Fall of his enemies. Coke. Misery of Sir John Villiers . . 300 

11. Fall of Churchill and Cranfield 301 

12. Fall of Williams .. 301 

13. Death of Bacon 302 



APPENDICES. 

I. Letter from Ann Lady Bacon to Lord Burghley . . 305 

II. Letters from Lady Bacon to her Son Anthony . . 308 

III. Letter from Anne Bacon to her Brothers Francis 

and Anthony 332 

IV. Letters from Francis Bacon to various Persons .. 333 
V. Grants from Queen Elizabeth to Edward Bacon and 

Francis Bacon 354 

VI. Letter from Anthony Bacon to Francis Bacon . . . . 382 

VII. Letters by the Earl of Essex 383 

VIII. Extracts from the Privy Council Eegisters . . . . 384 

IX. Eeport by Bacon and others to ths Privy Council . . 388 



i 



FRANCIS BACON, 



CHAPTER I. 



THE BIOGRAPHEKS. 



1. A fine wit has told the world that all men and women, I. 1, 
all youths and girls, are true poets, save only those who — 
write in verse. In such a saying, as in all good wit, there 
lies a core of truth. Men who have kept the poetry of 
their lives unshaped by art stand face to face with nature, 
seeing the blue sky, the bursting leaf, the hush of noon, 
the rising and setting sun, the green glade, the flowing sea, 
as these things are ; not as they appear in books, cut off 
into lengths of lines, tricked into antithetical phrase, 
rounded and closed by rhyme. No false rule of art impels 
a man who sees and feels, but who does not mean to 
write or paint, to squint at a group of elms, to peer 
through his hand at moonlight shimmering on a lake, or 
at sunset on the tops of a range of hills ; for such a man 
has no thought of how tree, lake, and alp may be described 
in verse of five or six feet, or of the lines in which this 
or that old painter would have framed them. He comes 
fresh to nature, and has an intimate and poetical relation 
to her. 

B 



z FRANCIS BACON. 

I. 2. 2. As with nature, so with man. That figure, decked 

by Pope — 

The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind 

■ — over which fools have grinned and rogues have rubbed 
their palms for more than a hundred years, has never 
yet been recognised by honest hearts. Men who trust 
the face of nature, not the point of satire, turn from 
this daub as from a false note in song, or from a painted 
living face. The young and pure reject satire, and they 
do well to reject it ; for satire is the disease of art. The 
young and pure will not believe a thing true because it is 
made to look false. Taught by heaven, and not by rules, 
they judge of character in the mass. Nature abhors anti- 
theses ; loving the soft approach of dawn, the slow sprouting 
of the seed, and moving by a delicate gradation through her 
round of calm and storm, of growth and life. Her forks 
never flash from a blue vault, nor do her waves cease to 
crest when the wind which whipped them lulls. Gradation 
is her law. If she may make a god or devil, she will not 
put the two in one. That is the task of art ; but of art 
in its lowest stage of depravity and decline. 

3. Can you be good and evil, wise and mean ? Gazing 
on the girl-like face in Hilyard's miniature, conning the 
deep lore of the Essays, toying with the mirth of the 
Apophthegms, lingering on the tale of a gay and pure, a 
busy and loving life, — how can they who judge by wholes 
and not by parts admit that one so eminently wise and 
good was also a false friend, a venal judge, a dishonest 
man? 

4. Yet this comedy of errors has run its course from 
Alexander Pope to John Lord Campbell. Strange to say, 



THE BIOGRAPHERS. 3 

the grave writers have gone nearly as far astray from I. 4. 
fact as those bright Parthians who, in choosing their — 
shafts, look rather to the feather than the flight. With 
them Bacon is, in turn, abject, venal, proud, profuse — un- 
grateful for the gifts of Essex, mercenary in his love for 
Alice Barnham, callous to the groans of Peacham, servile in 
the House of Commons, corrupt on the judicial bench ! 

5. The lie against nature in the name of Francis Bacon 
broke into high literary force with Pope. Before his day 
the scandal had only oozed in the slime of Welclen, 
Chamberlain, and D'Ewes. Pope picked it, as he might 
have picked a rough old flint, from the mud ; fanged it, 
poisoned it, set it on his shaft : 

Meanest of mankind ! 

What if it be a lie ? May not a lie kill ? 

It was not the only scum which in Pope's day frothed 
to the head. What man then believed in nobleness, even 
in intellect, unless that intellect were of the lowest type 
or served the basest cause ? The sole end of wit was 
defamation, the sole end of poetry vice. Of pure genius 
there was little, of high virtue less. All glorious charac- 
ters, all serious things, if not gone wholly from the minds 
of men, lingered in their memories only to be reviled. 
When Bacon became the meanest of mankind, Baleigh was 
assailed, and Shakespeare driven from the stage. Rowe 
was tainting our national drama, St. John undoing our 
political philosophy, Hume training his mind through 
doubts of God for the task of painting the most manly 
passage of arms in all history as our greatest blunder and 
our darkest shame. How should Francis Bacon have 
escaped his share in this moral wreck? 

b 2 



4 FRANCIS BACON. 

I. 0. 6. No man of rank in letters had yet soiled his fame ; 

for the foes who had lived in his own age, who had danced 
with him in the Gray's Inn masques, or had bowed to him 
as he rode down to the House, — even those who, like 
Sir Kobert Cecil and Sir Edward Coke, had most to fear 
from his gladiatorial strength, and in the madness of that 
fear pursued him with taunts and hate, — had never dreamt 
of denying that his virtues and his courage stood fairly in 
line with his vast abilities of tongue and pen. They had 
called him blind when they could not see, as he could, 
all the faces of an object. They had denied to his gra- 
titude the strong vitality of his intellectual power. They 
had spoken of his vanity, of his presumption, of his dan- 
dyism, of his unsound learning and unsafe law ; but 
the malice of these rivals had never strayed so far 
as to accuse him, to the ears of men who heard 
him in the House of Commons and met him at the 
tavern or the play, of a radical meanness of heart. Coke 
had called him a fool. Cecil had fancied him a dupe. 
But neither his rancorous rival at the bar, nor his sordid 
cousin at Whitehall, had ever thought him a rascal. That 
was the invention of a later time. 

The age that took Voltaire to be its guide, found out 
that Bacon had been a rogue. 

7. Since then he has been the prey of painters and 
pasquins ; his offences deepening, darkening, as men have 
moved yet farther and farther from the springs of truth. 
Hume is comparatively fair to him. Hallam is less fair ; 
though he will not, even for the sake of Pope, call Bacon 
the meanest of mankind. Lingard paints him with a more 
unctuous hate. Macaulay, in turn, is fierce and gay : 
his sketch of Kembrandt power: his lights too high, 



• LOKD CAMPBELL. 5 

his smears too black : noon on the brow, dusk at the I. 7. 
heart. Nature never yet made such a man as Macaulay 
paints. 

8. But of all the sins against Francis Bacon, that of 
Lord Campbell is the last and worst. I wish to speak 
with respect of so bold and great a man as our present f 
Lord Chancellor. He is one who has swept up the 
slope of fame by native power of heart and brain ; 
in the proud course of his life, from the Temple to the 
Peerage, from the Beporters' Gallery to the Woolsack, I 
admire the track of a man of genius — brave, circumspect, 
tenacious, strong ; one not to be put down, not to be set 
aside ; an example to men of letters and men of law. But 
the more highly I rank Lord Campbell's genius, the more 
I feel drawn to regret his haste. In such a case as the 
trial of Bacon's fame he was bound to take pains ; to sift 
every lie to its root ; to stay his condemning pen till he 
had satisfied his mind that in passing sentence of infamy 
he was right, beyond risk of appeal. A statesman and 
a law-reformer himself, he ought to have felt more sym- 
pathy for the just fame of a statesman and law-reformer 
than he has shown. Not that Lord Campbell finds fault 
with Bacon where he speaks by his own lights. Indeed, 
there he is just. He has no words too warm for Bacon's 
reforms as a lawyer, for his plans as a minister, for his 
rules as a chancellor. When Lord Campbell knows his 
subject at first hand, his praise of his hero rings out clear 
and loud. But there is much in the life of Bacon which 
he does not know. He has not given himself time to 
sift and winnow. Like an easy magistrate on the bench, 
he has taken the pleas for facts. That is his fault, and in 
such a man it is a very grave fault. 



6 FRANCIS BACON. 

I. 9. 9. What Hallain left dark and Campbell foul should 

— be cleansed as soon as may be from dust and stain. It is 
our due. One man only set aside, our interest in Bacon's 
fame is greater than in that of any Englishman who ever 
lived. We cannot hide his light, we cannot cast him 
out. For good, if it be good, for evil, if it must be evil, 
his brain has passed into our brain, his soul into our 
souls. We are part of him ; he is part of us ; inseparable 
as the salt and sea. The life he lived has become our law. 
If it be true that the Father of Modern Science was a 
rogue and cheat, it is also most true that we have taken a 
rogue and cheat to be our god. 

10. In front of all detail of fact, a general question 
must be put. 

Bacon seemed born to power. His kinsmen filled the 
highest posts. The sovereign liked him ; for he had the 
bloom of cheek, the flame of wit, the weight of sense, 
which the great Queen sought in men who stood about 
her throne. His powers were ever ready, ever equal. 
Masters of eloquence and epigram praised him as one of 
them, or one above them, in their peculiar arts. Jonson 
tells us he commanded when he spoke, and had his judges 
pleased or angry at his will. Kaleigh tells us he combined 
the most rare of gifts ; for while Cecil could talk and not 
write, Howard write and not talk, he alone could both talk 
and write. Nor were these gifts all flash and foam. If no 
one at the court could match his tongue of fire, so no one 
in the House of Commons could breast him in the race of 
work. He put the dunce to flight, the drudge to shame. 
If he soared high above rivals in his more passionate 
play of speech, he never met a rival in the dull, dry task 
of ordinary toil. Kaleigh, Hyde, and Cecil had small 






HIS RISE LONG DEFERRED. 7 

chance against him in debate ; in committee Yelverton I. 10. 
and Coke had none. — 

Why was he left behind ? 

11. Other men got on, Coke became Attorney-General, 
Fleming Solicitor-General. Ealeigh received his knight- 
hood, Cecil his knighthood. He alone won no spur, 
no place. Time passed. Devereux became a Privy Coun- 
cillor. Cobham got the Cinq Ports, Raleigh the patent 
of Virginia. Years again raced on. A new king came 
in, and still no change. Cecil became an Earl, Howard 
an Earl. What kept the greatest of them down? It 
was certainly not that he was hard like Popham, or 
crazed like Devereux, or gnarled like Coke. A soft voice, 
a laughing lip, a melting heart, made him hosts of friends. 
No child, no woman, could resist the spell of his sweet 
speech, of his tender smile, of his grace without study, his 
frankness without guile. Yet where he failed, men the 
most sullen and morose got on. 

12. Why did he not win his way to place ? He sought 
it : never man with more passionate haste ; for his big 
brain beat with a victorious consciousness of parts : he 
hungered, as for food, to rule and bless mankind. This 
question must be met. While men of far lower birth and 
claims got posts and honours, solicitorships, judgeships, 
embassies, portfolios, how came this strong man to pass 
the age of forty-six without gaining power or place ? 

Can it have been because he was servile and corrupt ? 

13. Rank and pay, the grace of kings, the smiles of 
ministers, were in Bacon's days, as in other days before and 
since, the wages of men who knew how to sink their views, 
to spend their years, to pledge their thought, their love, 



8 FRANCIS BACON. 

I. 13. their faith, for a yard of ribbon or a loaf of bread. If 
— Bacon were a man prostituting glorious gifts and strong 
convictions for a beck or nod, a pension or a place, why 
did he not rise ? why not grow rich ? If he were a rogue, 
he must have sold his virtue for less than Popham, his 
intelligence for less than Coke. How, then, could he be 
wise ? 

Wisest and meanest — there is the rub ! But turn the 
case round. How if his virtues, not his vices, kept him 
down so long ? How if his honesty, tolerance, magnanimity, 
not his heartlessness, his servility, and his corruption, 
caused his fall ? 

14. Look at the broad facts of the man's life first. Small 
facts may be true, broad facts must be true. One day in 
a man's course is hard to judge ; a year less hard ; a 
whole life not at all hard. It is the same in nature. 
"Watch for one night the track of a planet. Can you say 
if it move to the right or left? You are not sure. It 
seems to go back. It seems to go on. Watch it for a 
month, and you find that its path is forward. Is the star 
in fault? Not in the least. It is your own base that 
moves. Look at any chasm, peak, or scar on the earth's 
face : you see the earth jagged, crude, motionless. Take 
in the whole orb at once: you find it smooth, round, 
beautiful, and swift. In Bacon's own words, a wise man 
"will not judge the whole play by one act." Still less by 
one scene, one speech, one word, will he judge. 

In taking Bacon's course as a whole what do we find ? 
A man born to high rank, who seeks incessantly for place, 
who is above all men and by universal testimony fit for 
power ; yet one who passes the age of forty-six before he 
gets a start ; one who, after serving the Crown for more 



HIS COMPARATIVE POVERTY. 9 

than fourteen years in the highest offices of the most I. 14. 
lucrative branch of the public administration, dies a poorer — 
man than he was born. 

15. Bacon was fifty-two when he became Attorney- 
General; fifty-seven when he became Lord Chancellor. 
For one who had been Elizabeth's young Lord Keeper at 
ten, who had been a bencher of Gray's Inn at twenty-six, 
Lent Eeader at twenty-eight, this rise in his profession 
came late in life ; later than it came to barristers who could 
boast of neither his personal force nor his father's official 
rank. 

Coke was Attorney-General at forty-two. Egerton was 
Lord Keeper at forty-six ; Bromley Lord Chancellor at 
forty-seven, Hatton at forty-eight. 

It was much the same at Court as at the Bar. Youth 
was at the prow and beauty at the helm. At twenty- 
two Sydney went ambassador to Vienna; at thirty he 
went governor to Flushing. At twenty-six Essex was a 
Privy-Councillor ; at twenty-nine Commander-in-Chief. At 
thirty-two Baleigh received his powers to plant Virginia. 

16. Again : if Francis Bacon rose later in life than 
Egerton or Coke, even after he had risen to the loftiest 
summit of the Bar he won for himself none of the sweets 
of office. Alone among the great lawyers of his time he 
died poor. Hatton left a prince's wealth. Egerton founded 
the noble house of Ellesmere, Montagu that of Man- 
chester. Coke was one of the richest men in England. 
Popham bequeathed to his children Littlecote and Welling- 
ton. Bennet, Hobart, Fleming, each left a great estate. 
How explain this rule and this exception ? 

Surely they are not explained by the theory that 



10 FRANCIS BACON. 

I. 16. Bacon's servility held him down, while Coke's servility 
sent him up; that Bacon's corruption kept him poor, 
while Popham's corruption made him rich ! 

17. To judge a man's life in mass may not be the way 
to please a Cecil or a Coke ; the libidinous statesman 
who made love to Lacly Derby, who sold his country for 
Spanish gold, who gave power to his infamous mistress 
Lady Suffolk to vend her smiles ; or the acrid lawyer who 
jibed at Baieigh, who married a jilt for her money, who 
gave his daughter for a place. Nor is it the way to 
please those painters and lampooners who prefer dash to 
truth ; for a man so judged is not to be hit on paper 
in a mere smudge of black and white, by dubbing him 
wise and mean, sage and cheat, Solomon and Scapin, all 
in one. 

18. The he, it may be hoped, is about to pass away. An 
editor worthy of Bacon has risen to purge his fame. Such 
labours as those undertaken by Mr. Spedding demand a 
life, and he has not scrupled to devote the best years 
of an active and learned manhood to the preliminary 
toil. Lord Bacon's Literary, Legal, and Philosophical 
Works are already before the world in seven of Mr. 
Spedding' s princely volumes, printed and noted with the 
most skilful and loving care. Three or four volumes 
of Occasional and Personal Works are still to come, for 
which we may have to wait as many years. Meanwhile, 
the appearance of this new edition has drawn men's 
thoughts to the character of Bacon as painted by his foes ; 
and the instinct, strong as virtue, to reject the spume of 
satire and falsehood, has sprung at the voice of Mr. 
Spedding into lusty life. To aid in some small part in 



OBJECT OF THE PRESENT WORK. 



11 



tliis good work of obtaining from men of letters and 
science a reconsideration of the evidence on which true 
judgment will have to run, the new facts, the new letters, 
the new documentary illustrations comprised in this 
Keview of the Personal History of Lord Bacon are given 
to the world. 



I. 18. 



12 FRANCIS BACON. 



CHAPTEK II. 



EAELY YEAES. 



II. 1. 1. Sweet to the eye and to the heart is the face of 
— Francis Bacon as a child. Born among the courtly glories 
1561. f Y or k House, nursed on the green slopes and in the 
leafy woods of Gorhanibury ; now playing with the daisies 
and forget-me-nots, now with the mace and seals; one 
day culling posies with the gardener or coursing after the 
pigeons (which he liked, particularly, in a pie), the next 
day paying his pretty wee compliments to the Queen; 
he grows up into his teens a grave yet sunny boy ; on 
this side of his mind in love with nature, on that side 
in love with art. Every tale told of him wins on the 
imagination : whether he hunts the echo in St. James's 
Park, or eyes the juggler and detects his trick, or lisps wise 
saws to the Queen and becomes her young Lord Keeper of 
ten. Erail in health, as the sons of old men mostly are, 
his father's gout and stone, of which he will feel the twinge 
and fire to his dying day, only chain him to his garden or 
his desk. When thirteen years of age he goes to read books 
under Whitgiffc at Cambridge ; when sixteen to read men 
under Paulett in France. If he is young, he is still more 
sage. A native grace of soul keeps off from him the rust 
of the cloister no less than the stain of the world. As 
Cambridge fails to dry him into Broughton, Paris and 

1. Sir Aniias Paulett's Despatches in the Cott. MSS., Calig. E. vii. 3, 
8, 16, 31, 57 ; Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon, Lambeth MSS. 651, fol. 54 ; 
Bacon to Lady Paulett, Lambeth MSS. 649, fol. 214. 



1577. 



PUEITY OF HIS YOUTH. 13 

Poictiers fail to melt him into Montjoy. The perils lie II. 1. 
escapes are grave ; the three years spent under Whitgift's 
hard, cold eye being no less full of intellectual snares 
than are the three years spent in the voluptuous court of 
Henri Trois, among the dames and courtiers of France, of 
moral snares. In the train of Sir Amias Paulett, he rides 
at seventeen with that throng of nobles who attend the 
King and the Queen-Mother down to Blois, to Tours, to 
Poictiers ; mixes with the fair women on whose bright 
eyes the Queen relies for her success, even more than on 
her regiments and fleets ; glides in and through the hostile 
camps, observes the Catholic and Hugonot intrigues, and 
sees the great men of either court make love and war. 
But Lady Paulett, kind to him as a mother, watches over 
his steps with care and love, — a kindness he remembers 
and repays to the good lady, and to her kin, in later years. 
For him the d'Agelles sing their songs, the Tosseuses twine 
their curls in vain. 

2. No one lapse is known to have blurred the beauty of 
his youth. No rush of mad young blood ever drives him 
into brawls. To men of less temper and generosity than 
his own — to Devereux and Montjoy, to Percy and Vere, 
to Sackville and Bruce — he leaves the glory of Calais 
sands and Marylebone Park. If he be weak on the score 
of dress and pomp ; if he dote like a young girl on flowers, 
on scents, on gay colours, on the trappings of a horse, the 
ins and outs of a garden, the furniture of a room ; he 
neither drinks nor games, nor runs wild and loose in 
love. Armed with the most winning ways, the most 
glozing lip at court, he hurts no husband's peace, he drags 
no woman's name into the mire. He seeks no victories 

2. Sylva Sylvarum, x. 946, 986. 



14 FRANCIS BACON. 

II. 2. like those of Essex ; he burns no shame like Ealeigh into 
the cheek of one he loves. No Lady Kich, as in Sydney's 
immortal line, has cause 

To blush when he is named. 

When the passions fan out in most men, poetry flowers out 
in him. Old when a child, he seems to grow younger as he 
grows in years. Yet with all his wisdom he is not too wise 
to be a dreamer of dreams ; for while busy with his books in 
Paris he gives ear to a ghostly intimation of his father's 
death. All his pores lie open to external nature. Birds and 
flowers delight his eye ; his pulse beats quick at the sight 
of a fine horse, a ship in full sail, a soft sweep of country ; 
everything holy, innocent, and gay acts on his spirits like 
wine on a strong man's blood. Joyous, helpful, swift 
to do good, slow to think evil, he leaves on every one 
who meets him a sense of friendliness, of peace and 
power. The serenity of his spirit keeps his intellect 
bright, his affections warm ; and just as he left the halls of 
Trinity with his mind unwarped, so he now, when duty 
calls him from France, quits the galleries of the Louvre 
and St. Cloud with his morals pure. 

1579. 3. At the age of eighteen he fronts the world. The 

staff of his house being broken, as the dream has told 
him, he hies home from France to Lady Bacon's side. 
The Lord Keeper was not rich, and his lands have passed 
to his son by a former wife. Ann Lady Bacon is left 
a young widow with two sons, Anthony and Francis, a 
meek, brave heart, and a slender fortune ; a little family 
of three persons, who make up in love for each other all 

3. Lord Bacon to Burghley, Lansdowne MSS., xliii. 48 ; Lady Bacon to 
Anthony Bacon, Lambeth MSS. 648, 649, 650. The portrait of Lady 
Bacon by Nathaniel is at Gorhambury. 



1579. 



LADY ANN BACON. 15 

that they lack in pelf. Lady Ann, the Olympia Morata II. 3. 
of Elizabeth's court, is one of five sisters, daughters of that 
fine old scholar who drugged King Edward with Latin 
verse, Sir Anthony Cook of Giddy Hall in Essex ; all the 
five pious and learned as so many Muses, but unlike the 
Muses all made happy wives ; Mildred by Lord Burghley, 
Ann by the late Lord Keeper, Katharine by Sir Henry 
Killigrew, Elizabeth first by Sir Thomas Hoby and next by 
John Lord Russell, Margaret, the youngest sister of the five, 
by Sir Ralph Rowlet. So Francis Bacon claims through his 
mother close cousinry with Sir Robert Cecil, with Elizabeth 
and Anne Russell, with the witty and licentious race of the 
Killigrews, and with the future statesman and diplomatist 
Sir Edward Hoby. Lady Ann is deep in Greek and in 
divinity ; her translation of Jewell's i Apology ' is praised 
by the best critics, and has been printed for public use by 
orders from the Archbishop of Canterbury ; yet the good 
mother is not more at home with Plato and Gregory than 
among her herbs, her game, her stewpans, and her vats 
of ale. Nathaniel Bacon, with hearty humour and a 
play upon her name and habits, paints a portrait of 
her dressed as a cook and standing in a litter of dead 
game. She is very pious : in the words of her son " a 
Saint of God." Not a Puritan herself, she feels a soft 
and womanish sympathy for men who live the gospel 
they proclaim; brings up her sons in charity with all 
Protestant creeds ; hears the preachers with profit ; and 
without any air of patronage or protection towards 
them, speaks to her great kinsman, the Lord Treasurer, 
the word which spoken in season is quick to save. A 
bright, keen, motherly lady ; apt, as good women are, to 
give advice. To her, her famous children are always two 
little boys, who need to be corrected, physicked, and fed : 



1579. 



16 FRANCIS BACON. 

II. 4. when they are forty years old, and filled with all know- 
ledge of men and books, she not only sends them game 
from her own larder and strong beer from her own casks, 
having no great faith in other people's work, bnt lectures 
them on what they shall eat and drink, when they shall 
purge or let blood, how far they may ride or walk or 
drive in a coach, when they may safely eat supper, and at 
what hour in the morning they shall rise from bed. 

4. Lady Ann lives at Gorhambury. Anthony is abroad, 
now in France, now in Italy, now in Navarre, conning the 
languages and manners, the politics and events, of these 
famous lands. Francis falls to his terms at Gray's Inn, 
seeks the help of his great kinsman Burghley, and finds a 
seat in the House of Commons for himself at the age of 
twenty-four. 
1580. A letter, now first put in type, will show that he has 

July 11. fixed his tent at Gray's Inn as early as the summer of 
1580, a few months after his nineteenth year. This 
note is curious as the earliest known piece of writing from 
his hand, and as a sample of his boyish style. Macaulay 
dwells on the change from his early to his later manner ; the 
statuesque severity of that of his youth compared against 
the glow, the imagery, the wit, the licence, and the colour 
of that of his later time. At twenty Mino, at forty 
he had grown into Eaffaelle. How grave, how cold this 
message to Mr. Wylie ! 

Bacon to Mr. Wylie. 
Ik. WYLIE, From Gray's Inn, 11 of July, 1580. 

This very afternoon, giving date to these letters of 
mine, I received yours by the hands of Mr. Wimbanke, 

4. Gray's Inn Keg., cited in Craik's Bacon, i. 12 ; Bacon to Wylie, 
July 11, 1580, in Lambeth MSS. 647, fol. 14. 



LETTEE TO MR. WYLIE. 17 

and to the which I thought convenient not only to make II. 4. 
answer, but also therein to make speed, lest, upon supposi- — 
tion that the two letters enclosed were, according to their , ? 
directions, delivered, you should commit any error, either 
in withholding your letters so much the longer when 
peradventure they mought be looked for, or in not with- 
holding to make mention of these former letters in any 
other of a latter despatch. The considerations that moved 
me to stay the letters from receipt, whether they be in 
respect that I take this course to be needless or insufficient 
or likely to lead to more inconvenience otherwise than to 
do good, as it is meant in some such, they are that they 
prevail with my simple discretion, which you have put in 
trust in ordering the matter to persuade me to do as I 
have done. 

My trust and desire likewise is that you will report (?) 
and satisfy yourself upon that which seemeth good to me 
herein, being most privy to the circumstances of the 
matter, and tendering my brother's orders as I ought, and 
not being misaffected to you neither, by those at whom 
you glance, while I know whom you mean. I know like- 
wise that you mean amiss; for I am able, upon know- 
ledge, to acquit them from being toward [in ?] this matter. 
For mine own part, truly, Mr. Wylie, I never took it that 
your joining in company and travel with my brother pro- 
ceeded not only of good will in you, but also of his motion, 
and that your mind was always rather by desert than 
pretence of friendship to earn thanks than to win them. 
Neither would I say this much to you, if I would shrink to 
say it in any place where the contrary was inferred : and 
in that I rectified my brother of this matter being delivered 
unto me for truth. I had this consideration that among 
friends more advertisements are profitable than true. My 

c 



1580. 
July. 



18 FRANCIS BACON. 

II. 4. request to you is, that you will continue and proceed in 
your good mind towards my brother's well-doing; and 
although he himself can best both judge and consider of it, 
yet I dare say withall that his friends will not be unthank- 
ful to misconstrue it, but ready to acknowledge it upon 
his liking. And as for this matter, as you take no know- 
ledge at all of it, I will undertake it upon my knowledge 
that it shall be the better choice. Thus betake I you to 
the Lord. 

Your very friend, 

Fe. Bacon. 

1585. Though he enters the House of Commons, he finds no 

Nov. 23. public work. Not that Burghley pets and lures him only 
to chain him fast : the great Protestant minister is a man 
too feigh and noble for such a part, nor can Englishmen 
afford to soil his fame. Bacon, at least, never dreams that 
his uncle plays him false. That he does not push him 
with all his might is true : but this may be, not because he 
dreads in him a rival to his son, as is often said, so much 
as because, being old and timid, fearful of adventure and 
speculation, of risking those measures of Beligion and State 
in which his name is for ever bound up, he dreads the 
daring and original genius of his nephew, apt, he may 
think, in his flush of youth and intellectual strength to 
dash at success, to fly at the nearest road, to bridle and 
ride the popular storm. 

5. Kawley, Mallet, Montagu, and Lord Campbell have 
each in turn slurred the ten or twelve years in which Bacon 
grew from a boy of nineteen into a man of thirty or 
thirty-one, though in drama and instruction these years 

5. Willis, Notitia Parliamentaria, iii. 101, 113, 121 ; D'Ewes, 337. 






1585. 
Nov. 



RETURNED FOR MIDDLESEX. 19 

hold rank among the noblest of his life. The writers set II. 5 
him high on the stage for the first time in 1592, when he is 
thirty-one. " In the parliaments which met in 1586 and 
1588," says Lord Campbell, " he had been returned to the 
House of Commons ; but he does not seem to have made 
himself prominent by taking any decided part for or 
against the Crown." 

What is the truth? In 1592 he is returned to parlia- 
ment for Middlesex, the most wealthy, liberal, independent 
shire in England — the West Biding of the time and of 
long succeeding times. He is young, poor, out of place. 
He is even out of favour, since his uncle has turned 
from the young reformer his powerful face. Having 
neither rood of land nor hope of inheritance within the 
shire, the squires and freeholders of Middlesex choose him. 
Why, and how? Did penniless genius ever start in life 
by winning the first constituency in the realm ? Burke 
had to woo the electors of Wendover before he dreamt of 
Bristol. Pitt began with Appleby, and only at his height 
of power won the University of Cambridge. Brougham 
had suffered defeat at Liverpool, and had been glad to sit 
for Knaresborough, ere he tried to conquer the West 
Riding. So with Bacon. Service and success, of which 
the writers have never heard, lifted him to the height of 
Middlesex. When he rose at Brentford in 1592, he spoke 
to freeholders who knew his name and voice, not only as 
one of the most youthful, but as one of the most daring 
and effective members of a former House. 

Bacon had, indeed, served in Parliament prior even 
to the sessions of 1586 and 1588. He entered the House of 
Commons in 1585, when he was only twenty-four. He 
then sat for Melcombe. In the Parliament of 1586 he sat 
for Taunton, and in that of 1588 for Liverpool. 

c 2 



Nov. 



20 FRANCIS BACON. 

II. 6. 6. These three sessions not stirring! The author of 

— Tom Jones has a passage on the advantage of a writer 
knowing his subject ; the great humourist should have 
told us of the ease and comfort which a writer finds in 
not knowing his subject. Will not his soul be more at 
peace ? No truth will curb the freedom of his judgment — 
no fact interrupt the flow of his style. See how Hallam 
hesitates and halts ! He knows too much. Only your blind 
horse will leap into the chasm, or wait his death-gore from 
a horn of the bull. 

A month at books on any subject will not weight 
one much. A diplomatist used to say that when he had 
been four weeks in London he felt able to write a book 
on English life ; when he had been a year, he had doubts 
if he yet understood the whole of his theme ; when he 
had been ten years, he gave up the book in despair. 

Not stirring! Why, the three sessions in which 
Bacon served his parliamentary apprenticeship, though 
slipped as void and waste by his biographers, abound 
in scenes of high and tragic conflict — scenes in which 
he played an active and conspicuous part, and which 
coloured and shaped for him the course of his political 
life. These three sessions had to save the liberties of 
England, the faith of nearly half of Europe. They crushed 
the Jesuits, they founded the Defence Association, they 
sent out Kaleigh to plant new States, they laid Mary on 
the bier at Fotheringay, they broke and punished the 
Romanist conspiracies, they shattered and dispersed the 
Invincible Armada ! 

7. Nor were these early Parliaments less bright in 
composition than brave in deed. On swearing the oaths 

6. DEwes, 332, 439 ; Townshend, i. 29. 

7. Not. Pari., iii. 99, 107 ; Bacon's Essays, No. 3. 






1585. 

Nov. 



HIS EAKLY POPULAEITY. 21 

as member for Melcombe, Bacon takes his seat on the II. 7. 
same benches with the chief lights of law and government 
— with Hatton and Bromley, Egerton and Walsingham — as 
well as near those younger glories of the Court, the poets 
and warriors to whom secretaries of state are but as 
clerks, with Sir Philip Sydney, Sir Walter Baleigh, Sir 
Francis Drake, Sir Charles Blount, and hosts of others 
scarcely less renowned than these in love and war. 

Yet from the ranks of this group he leaps like fire 
into fame. Burke's spring was not so high, Pitt's popularity 
was not so wide. At twenty-five he has won the ear of 
that fastidious House. Wit so radiant, thought so fresh, 
and lore so prompt, had not before, and have never since, 
been heard within those famous walls. Yet his hold on the 
men of his generation is due less to an intellectual than to 
a moral cause. They trust him, for he represents what is 
best in each. The slave of Whitgift, the dupe of Brown, 
can each give ear to a churchman who seeks reform of 
the church, a lawyer eager to amend the law, a friend of 
the Crown who pleads against feudal privileges and unpopu- 
lar powers. When a colleague proposes some change in the 
church which would destroy it, he replies to him : " Sir, the 
subject we talk of is the eye of England ; if there be a speck 
or two in the eye, we endeavour to take them off; he would 
be a strange oculist who would pull out the eye." Of no 
sect, he represents in Parliament the patriotic spirit of all 
the sects. Not himself a Puritan, he pleads with Hastings 
for reform ; not a Roman Catholic, he lifts his voice 
against persecution for concerns of faith ; not a courtier, he 
votes with Cecil for supplies. In one word, he is English. 
To sustain the Queen in her great strife with Spain, to 
guard the church from abuse and from destruction, are as 
much his objects as to break the bonds of science and lead 



1585. 

Nov. 



22 FEANCIS BACON. 

II. 7. inquiry back from clouds to earth. When he strikes at 
corruptions in the State, when he resists the usurpations of 
the Peers, when he saps the privileges of the Crown, he 
speaks in the name of English progress and English 
strength. He fights for reform of the law, for increase of 
tillage, for union with the Scots, for plantations in Ulster, 
for discovery and defence in Virginia, for free Parliaments 
and for ample grants, because he sees that increase, union, 
freedom, and a rich executive are each and all essential to 
the growth and grandeur of the realm. 

8. How he appears in outward grace and aspect among 
these courtly and martial contemporaries, the miniature 
by Hilyard helps us to conceive. Slight in build, rosy 
and round in flesh, dight in a sumptuous suit ; the head 
well-set, erect, and framed in a thick starched fence of frill ; 
a bloom of study and of travel on the fat, girlish face, which 
looks far younger than his years ; the hat and feather 
tossed aside from the broad white brow, over which crisps 
and curls a mane of dark, soft hair; an English nose, 
firm, open, straight; mouth delicate and small — a lady's 
or a jester's mouth — a thousand pranks and humours, 
quibbles, whims, and laughters lurking in its twinkling, 
tremulous lines : — such is Francis Bacon at the age of 
twenty-four. 

1586. 9. No session ever met under darker skies than that of 

Oct. 29. 1586. Babington's conspiracy has just exploded ; fleets 

are arming in Cadiz bay ; money and men are ready in 

Kome, in Naples, in Leghorn, for a crusade against the 

8. Hilyard's miniature is in the possession of Adair Hawkins, Esq., of 
Great Marlborough Street. 

9. Dom. Papers of Queen Eliz., ccxxii. ; Andrese Philopatri ad Elizabeths 
Keginse Anglias edictum responsio ; Toulmin's History of Taunton, 365. 



1586. 
Oct. 29. 



MEMBER FOR TAUNTON. 23 

heretics ; Parsons is hounding on the Pope, Sixtus hound- II. 9. 
ing on Philip ; in the Tagus, at the Groyne, in the cities 
of Brabant and Flanders, armaments wait but a word to 
cross over into Kent, to seat Mary Queen of Scots on the 
throne, to reduce England to a fief of the Church. Eng- 
land flushes with heroic pride. London, Dover, Ports- 
mouth swarm with soldiers; drums are rolling in every 
hamlet, yeomen mustering in the market-places of every 
shire. But no part of England burns with more fervent 
heat than the western counties, nor in these counties than 
the town of Taunton. Taunton is the seat of trade and 
manufacture — a Manchester of a milder clime; next to 
Bristol the richest town between the Severn and the 
Scilly Isles ; next to London the most patriotic town 
between the Irish Sea and Dover Straits. In the day 
when everything dear to man appears to be at stake, this 
populous and enterprising town sends Bacon to West- 
minster to speak in its name and give its vote. 

10. The writs having gone out while the ruffians who 
prated of friendship and sentiment are on trial for their 
crimes, the passionate patriotism of the land storms up, too 
strong for Burghley to breast, too strong for Elizabeth her- 
self to ride. When the Peers and Commoners meet, a cry 
goes up to the throne that Mary shall be brought to trial, 
and, on proof of her guilt, shall be put to death. In this 
stern prayer the burgess for Taunton, tolerant as he is of 
mere opinion, joins. The Crown dares not refuse. Menaced 
on every side, England can give no answer to the threats of 
invasion save an open trial and solemn execution of the 
Queen of Scots. 

10. State Trials, i. 1127-1162; D'Ewes, 393. 



Oct. 29. 



24 FRANCIS BACON. 

II. 11. 11. What to do with Mary had been a dismal question 
— for honest men since the day when she had first sought 
1586. re f U g e j n Carlisle from her licentious barons and her faith- 
less son. In her room at Chartley, guarded by the old 
moat, shut in with her women and her priests, she had 
scared the Protestant imagination more than either the 
Kaiser in Vienna or the Pope in Eome. Her position 
was, indeed, most strange: to-day a prisoner, to-morrow 
she might become a queen. She had no need to make a 
party, to risk her head, in order to win her game. She 
had only to live : certain, as fall will follow spring, of 
rising one day from her bed of durance to find the necks 
of her enemies beneath her feet. An accident, a crime, 
might give her, any hour, the crown. A stumbling jennet, 
an unwholesome meal, a prick of Babington's knife, a 
snap of Salisbury's dagg, might take away the life which 
alone stood between her and the English crown. 

Put on trial, her complicity proved, her cousin would 
still have spared her life. But the Burghleys, Davisons, 
and Pauletts were in no position to treat this profligate 
woman with the leonine clemency of the Queen. To 
Elizabeth she was, indeed, a danger and a snare ; but to 
the Protestant gentleman who loved his religion and his 
country, her removal or succession was a question of life 
or death. She could neither break Elizabeth on the 
wheel nor roast her at the stake ; for, unless a Spanish 
force should succeed in seating her on the throne, her day 
of evil could not come until the Queen was safe from the 
revenge of King and Pope. But what prelate on the 
bench, what councillor at the board, what magistrate in 

11. Dora. Papers of Eliz;, cxciv. ; D'Ewes, 393-410 ; Davison to Walsing- 
ham, Oct. 10, 1586, in the State Paper Office; Burghley to Davison, Nov. 
24, 1586, S. P. O. 



1586. 
Oct. 29. 



OUTCRY AGAINST MARY. 25 

his shire, would feel his head safe on his spine should II. 11. 
the trumpets bray the accession of Mary to the English 
throne ? They had seen another Mary. Old men recalled the 
day when Latimer perished. Half the citizens of London 
could tell how Eogers had gone to heaven in the Smith- 
field fires. All England shook with news of the more recent 
massacres of Paris— massacres solemnly approved and com- 
memorated in Eome as services to God. Men firm in their 
own faith, loyal to their own Queen, pretended no pity for 
a woman who to Helen's loveliness of person added more 
than Helen's dissoluteness of mind. They saw in Mary 
a wife who had married three husbands and was eager 
to marry more. They saw in her the murderess of 
Darnley, the destroyer of the Kirk. They saw in her a 
pretender to the English crown, in whose name Sixtus 
had resumed the kingdom, and Philip was preparing to 
lay it waste. Was such a woman to live and become their 
Queen ? 

Had Mary refrained from plots, content to bide her 
time, the peril of such a future would have been hard to 
meet ; but when her complicity in Babington's treason was 
proved in court, then Davison urged, and the House of 
Commons demanded by petition, that for the security of 
life, liberty, and true religion in time to come, the prisoner 
of Fotheringay should suffer the just sentence of the law. 

12. The Queen holds out. A grand committee, of which Nov. 12. 
Bacon is a member, goes into the presence, and the 
lords spiritual and temporal, the knight and squire, the 
lawyer and goldsmith, kneeling together at her feet, 
demand that the national will shall be done — that the 
Protestant faith shall be saved. She will not hear them. 

12. Nicholas, Life of Davison, 1823 ; D'Ewes, 394-400 ; Camden, Ann. 1586. 



1587. 
Feb. 8 



26 FKANCIS bacon. 

II. 12. When the deed is done that makes England free — 
done by Davison's command if not by the Queen's — she 
casts the courageous minister from power; nor will she 
to her dying day consent to see his face or hear his 
name. There ought to be no doubt of the sincerity of her 
grief. 

13. The letters which have been printed in more recent 
times, suggesting that Elizabeth, while affecting to with- 
hold her consent to Mary's death, instigated Paulett to 
commit a private murder, are odious and clumsy literary 
forgeries. These letters have been adopted by Lingard, 
and have half imposed on the cautious Hallam. Yet 
the originals are nowhere to be found, the name of the 
pretended discoverer of them is unknown, and they have 
never been seen by any competent or reputable man ! 
The circumstances of their publication suggest forgery for 
a political end, while the style and statement of the letters 
prove them to be inventions of a later time. The alleged 
discovery of these papers, so damaging to the English 
Church and so fatal to the Protestant Queen, was made by 
partisans of the Papist Pretender in the hottest days of 
the Jacobite feud. The dates, the names, the facts ad- 
duced, establish the comparatively recent fraud. 

The Queen, slow to shed blood, meant to save Mary 
from the block, but her people and her parliament, free from 
her woman's weakness and her ties of blood, required that 
high political justice should be done. Mary was the first and 
worst of all their foes ; the princes of Spain and Italy were 
her soldiers, the Babingtons and Salisburys of London her 
assassins. England could only meet the league of Kaiser, 

13. Comp. Hallam, Hist, of Eng., i. 159 n. ; Lingard, viii. 282 ; with a 
Note in Charles Knight's Hist, of Eng., hi. 205. 



1587. 
Feb. 8. 



SITS FOR LIVERPOOL. 27 

Pope, and King by snatching away their flag. Mary gone, II. 13 
the invaders were without a cause, the conspirators without 
a cry. Who shall say what might have chanced had Mary 
been alive, when the Duke of Medina Sidonia rode off the 
Lizard, to excite a rising in the western shires, or even to 
divide the loyalty and check the courage of the English 
fleet? 

14. Bacon's fame as a patriot, as an orator, is in these 
transactions formed and fixed. To know him is to be 
happy ; to have been at school with him, distinguished. 
William Phillippes, wanting a place under Davison for his 
son, thinks it enough to remind the great minister that 
his boy had been trained with the young member for 
Taunton. 

15. Years hurry past. The Armada comes and goes. 1589. 
While the watch-fires are yet burning on the cliffs, the Feb. 4. 
wrecks of a hundred keels yet tossing in the foam from 
Devon to Caithness, Parliament meets. Bacon now sits 

for Liverpool. Danger is past; the Queen has been 
to thank God at St. Paul's, and a merry Christmas 
has been kept in hall and cottage, many a spar washed 
up from the wrecks of the Spanish fleet crackling in the 
festive fires. 

14. Phillippes to Davison, Oct. 5, 1586, S. P. O. In citing those State 
Papers from which a main portion of the following narrative will he de- 
rived, I must express my obligations to Sir John Romilly, Master of the 
Rolls, for the facilities which, during many years, he has given to my 
researches among the public documents of which he has the legal charge. 
My thanks are no less due to Lord Stanley and Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, 
for the courtesy with which, when Secretaries of State, they listened to my 
proposals for certain changes in the State Paper Office favourable to 
historical students, and for the promptitude with which they consented to 
remove restrictions that had made any general and critical study of the 
State Papers next to impossible. 

15. Not. Pari., iii. 121 ; D'Ewes, 430-439 ; Statutes of the Kealm, 31 
Eliz., c. 15. 



28 FRANCIS BACON. 

II. 15. In this new session Bacon serves on the most important 
committees, speaks on the most important bills : now 
' standing for the privileges of the House of Commons, 
now assaulting the Royal purveyors, now denouncing the 
forestallers, regrators, and engrossors. The great debates 
of this year occur on subsidies and grants. 

Hatton proposes two subsidies and four fifteenths and 
tenths ; to which Bacon, whose soul is in the patriotic 
tug, agrees : he moves, however, to insert in the bill a 
clause explaining that these grants are extraordinary and 
exceptional, meant for the war, and only for the war. 
To this the Queen objects, as fettering her future acts : 
enough for the squires to pronounce their Yea or Nay. 
The squires stand firm. Many men support what one man 
dares. After much debate, the Crown proposes to lay 
the bill, with Bacon's amendments to it, before the Learned 
Counsel ; to which the House of Commons, insisting first 
that the author of the amendments shall be present at the 
sittings of that learned board, consents. Under his soft, 
persuasive tact, the interests of the sovereign are recon- 
ciled with the interests of her people, and the bill is passed 
to the satisfaction of Queen and Commons. Power and 
fame now seem to be in his grasp. Elizabeth sends for 
him to the palace ; the electors of Middlesex cast their 
eyes upon him ; and, when parliament meets again, he will 
represent the wealth and courage of that great consti- 
tuency. From the session of 1589 dates his firm ascendency 
in the House of Commons. 

16. Lady Bacon and her sons are poor. Anthony, the 

16. Wotton's Baronetage, edited by Johnson and Timber, i. 8 ; Patent 
Bolls, 16 Eliz., par. 6, mem. 3 (see App. v. 1) ; Lady Bacon to Anthony 
Bacon, Lamb. MSS. 648, 106, 650, 75, 651, 54 ; Lady Bacon to her brothers 
Francis and Anthony Bacon, Lamb. MSS. 648, fol. 10. 



1591 



NICHOLAS BACON. 29 

loving and beloved, with whom Francis had been bred at II. 16. 
Cambridge and in France, has now come home. His 
health, bad at the best, has broken in the south ; so he 
lies for a long time in bed or on a couch at his brother's 
rooms in Gray's Inn Square. The two young fellows have 
little money and expensive ways. Anthony, as the elder 
brother, owns a seat at Redburn, in Hertfordshire, with a 
few farms lying round it. Gorhambury, too, will be his 
when Lady Bacon dies. But the rents fall far below his 
needs, not to speak of the needs of his brother, who is now 
prominent at court, a leader in the House of Commons, 
and a candidate for the glory of representing in parlia- 
ment the metropolitan shire. Their half-brother Sir 
Nicholas, who inherits Redgrave and the broad Suffolk 
acres left by the Lord Keeper, a man with penurious 
habits and a swarm of children, deems his own nine sons 
and three daughters burthen enough, without having to 
pinch for the offspring of Lady Ann. When he marries 
a daughter they may get an invitation to Redgrave ; but 
his brotherly hospitalities end with the feast. Nathaniel 
may paint their portraits and present them with game 
on canvas, but the artist can do nothing to fill their 
mouths. Edward has a lease from the Crown of Twicken- 
ham Park, a delightful place on the river, of which Francis 
makes a home. Lady Ann starves herself at Gorhambury 
that she may send to Gray's Inn ale from her cellar, 
pigeons from her dovecote, fowls from her farmyard ; gifts 
which she seasons with a good deal of motherly love and 
not a little of her best motherly advice. The young men 
take the love and leave the advice, as young men will. 
Like Buckhurst, Herbert, and the race of gay cavaliers, 
while waiting for better days and brighter fortunes, they 
relieve their wants by help of the Lombards and Jews. 



1592. 
Feb. 18 



30 FEANCIS BACON. 

II. 17. 17. Francis looks for an opening to mend their means. 
A rich alderman dies, leaving his son a ward. The 
guardianship of a Queen's ward is often a profitable toil, 
and the care of Hayward's son is in Burghley's gift. 
Francis urges Lady Ann to apply to her sister's husband 
for this lucrative trust. 

Bacon to Lady Bacon. 
MADAM, From my Lodgings, Feb. 18, 1591-2. 

Alderman Hayward is deceased this night. His 
eldest son is fallen ward. My Lord Treasurer doth not 
for the most part hastily dispose of wards. It were worth 
the obtaining, if it were but in respect of the widow, who 
is a gentlewoman much recommended. Your ladyship 
hath never had any ward. If, my Lady, it were too early 
for my brother to begone with a suit to my Lord before 
he had seen his Lordship, and, for me, if I at this time pro- 
cure (?) my Lord to be my friend with the Queen, it may 
please your ladyship to move my Lord, and to promise to 
be thankful to any other my Lord oweth pleasure unto. 
There should be no time lost therein. And so I most 
humbly take my leave. 

Your Ladyship's most obedient son, 

Fk. Bacon. 

My Lord (Lord Burghley) is a leal friend to him with 
the Queen ; a little slow, as his nature is, but honest, sage, 
and sure. While waiting for a post, and only that of 
Attorney-General or Solicitor-General will serve his turn, 
the young barrister fags at his books ; framing in his mind 
a magnificent scheme for reducing and codifying the whole 

17. Lambeth MSS. 648, fol. 5, 106, 110. 



1592. 



LADY BACON. 31 

body of English law, as well as shaping his more colossal II. 17. 
plans for re-constituting the whole round of the sciences. 
Like the ways of all deep dreamers, his habits are odd, and 
vex Lady Ann's affectionate and methodical heart. The -^ a ^ 24, 
boy sits up late of nights? drinks his ale-posset to make 
him sleep, starts out of bed ere it is light, or may be, as 
the whimsy takes him, lolls and dreams till noon, musing, 
says the good lady with loving pity, on — she knows not 
wha£ ! Her own round of duty lies in saying her morning 
and evening prayers, in hearing nine or ten sermons in the 
week, in caring for her kitchen and hen-roost, in physick- 
ing herself, her maids, and her tenants, in making the 
rascals who would cheat her pay their rent, and in loving 
and counselling her two careless boys. Dear, admirable 
soul ! How human and how humorous, too, the picture 
of this good mother, warm in her affections, scolding for us 
our broadbrowed awful Verulam ! 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

Gorhambury, 24th May, 1592. 

Grace and health. That you increase in amending 
I am glad. Grod continue it every way. When you cease 
of your prescribed diet, you had need I think to be very 
wary both of your sudden change of quantity and of 
season of your feeding, specially suppers late or full ; pro- 
cure rest in convenient time, it helpeth much to digestion. 
I verily think your brother's weak stomach to digest hath 
been much caused and confirmed by untimely going to 
bed, and then musing, I know not what, when he should 
sleep, and then, in consequence, by late rising and long 
lying in bed, whereby his men are made slothful and him- 
self continually sickly. But my sons haste not to hearken 
to their mother's good counsel in time to prevent. The 



32 FRANCIS BACON. 

II. 17. Lord our heavenly Father heal and bless you both, as His 
— sons in Christ Jesus ! 

I promise you, touching your coach, if it be so to your 
y contentation, it was not wisdom to have it seen and known 
at the Court. You shall be so much pressed to lend, and 
your man for gain so ready to agree, that the discommodity 
thereof will be as much as the commodity. I would your 
health had been such as you needed not to have provided 
a coach but for a wife ; but the will of God be done. You 
were best to excuse you by me, that I have desired the 
use of it, because, as I feel it too true, my going is almost 
spent, and must be fain to be bold with you. It is like 
Kobert Bailey and his sons have been to seek some com- 
modity of you ; the father hath been but an ill tenant to 
the wood, and a wayward payer, and hath forfeited his 
bond, which I intend not to let slip ; his son a dissolute 
young man, and bom of them crafty. Likewise young 
Carpenter may sue to be your man. Be not hasty ; you 
shall find such young men proud and bold, and of no ser- 
vice, but charge and discredit. Be advised. Overshoot 
not yourself undiscreetly. I tell you, plain folk in 
appearance will quickly cumber one here, and they will 
all seek to abuse your want of experience by so long 
absence. Be not hasty, but understand well first your 
own state. There w 7 as never less kindness in tenants 
commonly than now. Farewell in Christ. 

Let not your men see my letters. I write to you, and 

not to them. 

Your mother, 

A. Bacon. 

This coach which the two brothers, both of them sick, 
both racked with gout and ague, have set up, weighs 



1592. 



PROMINENT MEMBERS OF THE COMMONS. 33 

heavily on her spirits. Again and again she returns to II. 17. 
the charge. "I like not your lending it to any lord 
or lady. It was not well it was so soon seen at 
court. Tell your brother, I counsel you to send it no 
more. What had my Lady Shrewsbury to borrow your 
coach?" 

18. If the post of orator of the House of Commons is 1593. 
no easy one to win, it is one more difficult to hold. Wit, Feb. 19, 
sense, readiness, repartee, power, patience, mastery of men 
and books, are parts of the round of faculties and acquire- 
ments for one who is to seize the direction and sway the 
votes of an English House of Commons. At thirty-two, 
when Bacon, in the session of 1593, takes his seat for 
Middlesex, he finds on the benches right and left of him 
men the most renowned in English story. Coke is Speaker ; 
Cecil leads for the Crown; Kaleigh and Vere sit nigh 
him ; Fulk Greville, the friend of Sydney, John Fortescue, 
Lawrence Hyde, Henry Yelverton, Edward Dyer, Henry 
Montagu, rival speakers and lawyers, are but six of a 
conspicuous crowd. The war continues, and events look 
grave. Battalions crowd Dunkerque and Calais ; the flag 
of Leon and Castile flaps within sight of Dover-pier ; 
London stands under arms; troops hurry for Flanders, 
Dublin, and Kinsale ; the Sussex foundries cast guns ; and 
fort on fort rises along the coast from Margate to Penzance. 
Yet the war without is not more harassing than the disease 
within. London gasps with plague. No lute or tabor 
sounds from the tavern-porch ; no play draws dames and 
gallants to the Globe ; no pageant crowds the Thames 

18. Not. Pari., iii. 131 ; Council Reg., Jan. 28, July 19, 1593; Mem. of 
Men for Ireland, April 6, 1593, S. P. O. ; Elizabeth to Godolplrin, May 9, 
1593, S. P. O. ; Mem. by Burghley, May 9, 22, 31, 1593, S. P. O. ; List of m 
Parishes in London infested with Plague, Lamb. MSS. 648, fol. 152. 



1593. 
Feb. 



34 FRANCIS BACON. 

i 

II. 18. with citizens and 'prentice boys. An order from tbe Lord 
Mayor puts down all games — tbe bear-bait at Paris Gar- 
den, the sports of the inn-yards, the song and jollity of 
the ale-clnbs. Yet, in the midst of woe and death, the 
recruiting-sergeant beats to arms. Henri the Fourth, who 
has mounted the throne of France, pressed by the vic- 
torious Spaniards, calls for help, and levies are being 
raised for him in London and in places usually exempt 
from such a tax. 

While yielding the Queen's government support on her 
money bills, the feeders of the war, Bacon forces on the 
topic of reform, and defeats an extraordinary attempt at 
dictation by the ministers of the Crown. 

Feb. 26. 19. The House has not sat a week — not yet proved its 
returns — before he hints at his scheme for amending and 
condensing the whole body of English law. The House 
starts up. The tide might have come in from the Thames. 
Eeform the code ! Bacon tells a House full of Queen's 
counsel, Queen's Serjeants, and utter barristers, that laws 
are made to guard the rights of the people, not to feed the 
lawyers. The laws should be read by all, known to all. 
Put them into shape, inform them with philosophy, reduce 
them in bulk, give them into every man's hand. So runs 
his speech. A noble thought — a need of every nation 
under the sun — a task to be wrought at by him through a 
long life — to be then left to successors, who, after revolu- 
tions and restorations, commissions and reports, have it still 
in hand — undone ! The plan, of which this fragment of a 
speech is the root, developed in his Maxims of the Law, 
and proposed as part of his great reform in the De Aug- 

19. Townskend's Historical Collection, 60 ; Bacon's Works, vii. 313 ; 
Les Aphorisnies du Droit, traduits du Latin de Messire FranQois Bacon, 
Grand Chancelier d'Angleterre, par J. Baudoin, 1646. 



1593. 
Feb. 



OPPOSES THE GOVERNMENT. 35 

mentis, has had more success abroad than it has found at II. 19. 
home. It was universally read, and most of all in France. 
It was translated by Baudoin, and inscribed to Segrier, 
Chancellor of France. In that country it has blossomed 
and come to fruit. But a French revolution alone had 
power to achieve this vast design against established 
things ; and the Code Napoleon is even now, in 1860, the 
sole embodiment of Bacon's thought. 

20. Ten days later he gives a check to the Government, Mar, 
which brings down upon his head those censures of 
Burghley and Puckering which are said to have repre- 
sented in fact, if not in word, the personal anger of the 
Queen. The story of this speech has been so told as to 

rob Bacon of all credit for his daring, the ministers of all 
reason for their wrath. 

Lord Campbell writes, that he votes for the grants pro- 
posed by the Crown, but pleads for time in which the 
people shall be called to pay them ; that Burghley and 
Puckering bully and threaten him ; that he bows to this 
storm of indignation a penitential face. Lord Campbell 
pictures the young barrister as whining under the lash, 
kissing the rod that smites him, pledging the tears in his 
eyes that he will never, in that way, offend her Majesty 
again ! 

21. The offence lies deeper than Lord Campbell dreams : 
an offence of two parts ; one of which parts has wholly 
escaped his sight. 

The Government seeks from the House of Commons a 

20. Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, art. 'Bacon,' iii. 15. 

21. Inhibitions delivered to Coke from the Queen, Feb. 28, 1593, S. P. O. ; 
Message from Coke to the House of Commons, Feb. 28, 1593, S. P. O. ; 
Confession of Laton, Feb. 1593, S. P. O. 

D 2 



1593. 
Mar. 



36 FRANCIS BACON. 

II. 21. very extraordinary grant of money. It is usual to ask for 
half a subsidy a year. Half a subsidy is ten per cent. — 
two shillings in the pound a year. Burghley proposes to 
demand from the burgesses a double rate : one whole sub- 
sidy a year ; four shillings in the pound. So high a tax 
will not, he knows, be voted by the House, with all its 
eagerness for war, unless the whole authority of the 
Crown and Government can be brought to bear. He forms 
his plans. Drafting such a bill as he hopes may pass, he 
sends word to Mr. Speaker Coke that he must beat down, 
in the Queen's name, all such noisy members as shall 
presume to prate of things in Church and State. No idle 
threat, as Bromley and Wentworth find ; ere many days 
are gone, Wentworth has talked himself into the Tower, 
Bromley into the Fleet. 

Burghley now asks the House to confer with the Peers 
on a grant for the Queen's service ; and a committee 
goes up ; among them, in frill and feather, gown or 
sword, Vere, Raleigh, Greville, Hastings, Cecil, Bacon, and 
Coke. They hear the Lord-Treasurer's words; and the 
next day Cecil reports, in their name, to the Commons, that 
the Peers have decided for them what they shall give, and at 
what times : three subsidies in three years — four shillings 
in the pound each year. For them to hear is to obey. 

Knight and squire gaze at each other. Four shillings 
in the pound a year ! And the Commons robbed of even 
the credit of their own gifts ! Such a speech is resented 
as a slur on their patriotism, a curb on their debates. 

22. Who rises to warn the minister ? Is it the fiery 
Raleigh, the martial Vere ? Where sits the noisy Hastings, 
the sagacious Greville, the turbulent Coke ? Not one of 

22. D'Ewes, 468-83. 



1593. 
Mar. 



RESENTS INTERFERENCE OF THE PEERS. 37 

these flames up. Soldiers who have pushed through II. 22 
Parma's Hues, advocates bronzed in cheek, and Puritans 
steeled in the fire of controversy, stare and wait. No 
marvel either. Not one of these men, in a plain, good 
cause, would have shrunk from a threat of Little Ease or 
Beauchamp Tower. The difficulty is, to defend their right 
of making grants and subsidies without seeming to oppose 
a war on which the country has set its soul, and without 
showing to the hosts of home and foreign enemies a broken 
front. To the bill itself the capital objection is only one 
of form. Cecil counts on the heat for battle ; and to fight 
for the power of free taxation, against the passionate haste 
of the people for clash of pikes and roar of guns, needs 
courage of a lofty and peculiar kind. Coke may fear to 
offend the Queen, Kaleigh to embolden the King of Spain, 
Hastings to vex the musters and the fleet. Bacon 
starts up. 

A few clear words declare that he does not mean to 
touch the grant. No man will grudge the funds to fit out 
ships and man the guns. But there he stops. To give is 
the prerogative of the people — to dictate what they shall 
give is not the duty of the House of Peers. In framing 
this bill the Government, he says, has gone beyond its 
powers ; and he counsels the Commons, in defence, to 
decline any further conferences with the Lords on a 
money-bill. From his vest he takes an Answer to the 
Lords, which he proposes shall be read, and if approved, 
sent up. This Answer is referred to a committee of fifty- 
one. The committee cannot agree ; and return their com- 
mission to the House. Hot debates ensue. Burghley hides 
himself behind the Queen : but even her august and sacred 
name appears to have lost its force. Broad lines are drawn, 
and the members fall into either camp. The courtiers stand 



Mar. 



38 FRANCIS BACON. 

II. 22. with Cecil for continuing the conferences on the money- 
— bill ; the reformers with Bacon for resisting this encroach- 
ment on the constitutional laws. 

Coke puts the question from the chair — for a con- 
ference ; yea, or nay ? A hundred and twenty-eight gen- 
tlemen cry Yea. Two hundred and seventeen gentlemen 
cry Nay. 

23. A raid of Parma's pikes through Kent would 
have startled Burghley less than such a vote. It is the 
first great check he has ever known ; it stops the whole 
machinery of legislation ; it covers himself, his measures, 
and his friends with public shame. He scolds his nephew ; 
he sets the Lord-Keeper on to scold him. These func- 
tionaries threaten him with the Queen's ire; but Bacon 
defends what the Knight for Middlesex has said and done. 
If words not used by him are put upon him, he will deny 
them ; if his words are misunderstood, he will explain 
them; but to the sense of his speech he must hold 
fast. How can he unsay the truth ? This is his 
apology and defence. If her Highness, as they urge, is 
angry with him, he shall grieve ; if she commands him 
into silence, he must obey; but in thwarting this inva- 
sion of popular rights by the House of Peers, he has 
done no more than his duty to his Queen, his country, 
and his God. 

24. Though the progress of the bill is stopped, all sides 
agree that the fleet must be manned — the musters armed. 
Raleigh starts a compromise. Flushed with his glorious 
voyage, red with spoil from the Santa Clara and the 

23. Bacon to Burghley and to Puckering, Montagu, xii. 275, Notes E. E. 

24. Townshend, 67 ; D Ewes, 488. 



RALEIGH'S COMPROMISE. 39 

Madre de Dios, the adventurer burns to be again at II. 24. 
sea, chasing the Spanish ships, or forcing the rivers of — 
Guiana. Every day given to debate, he grudges as lost to 1593 - 
victory and revenge. To him, delay is disaster; talk is ar * 

treason. Vote the supplies — send out the fleet — dash at 
Cadiz or Malaga — sweep the plantations — snap up gal- 
leon and carrack — death to the yellow flag ! cries that 
impetuous soul. The members warm to his voice. Ke- 
solve, he says, to confer with the Lords on the perils of 
the realm. Say no more about grants. Listen to what 
the Government may have to tell about the Papal bull 
and the Spanish fleet. When you have saved the point 
of form, vote the money-bill as you list. Well spoken, 
Ealeigh ! Not a tongue cries Nay. 

25. Set free by this device to discuss their money-bill, April, 
the Commons fall to work. Cecil stands to the old plan of 
three subsidies, to be paid in three years. Bacon, neither 
cowed nor penitent, rises once more to oppose the court ; 
not on the amount, which he approves, but on the time, 
which is, indeed, the essential point. He asks for six 
years in place of three ; in other words, for two shillings in 
the pound a year, in place of four. Even for the joy of 
smiting Spain, he cannot drain the sources of industry, seize 
the craftsman's tools, the farmer's cider-press and milk- 
pans. Ealeigh storms upon him. Will he starve the war ? 
Cecil smiles and cajoles. But Bacon, who has won the ear 
even of this warlike auditory, insists that time shall be 
given, and that the grants shall be described as excep- 
tional and extraordinary. In the end, against the warmth 



25. Lords' Jour., ii. 184; D'Ewes, 493; Townshend, 72; Statutes, 
35 Eliz., c, 13. 



40 FKANCIS BACON. 

II. 25. of Raleigh and the wiles of Cecil, he compels the Govern- 
ment to meet his proposal half-way, to extend the period 
proposed for the raising of these taxes a year (in other 
words, to take three shillings in the pound each year in 
place of four), and to insert a clause in the bill declaring 
that the money is given solely for the war against Spain. 



1593. 
April. 



CLAIMS TO BE SOLICITOR-GENERAL. 41 



CHAPTEK III. 



THE EAKL OF ESSEX. 



1593. 
Sept. 



1. Six months after this brush with the Government III. 1 
Bacon is a candidate for place. The Rolls are vacant, and 
the rise of Egerton must leave the post of Attorney void. 
Coke claims to succeed. Some at the bar and on the 
bench would prefer Bacon's rise to Coke's : each has his 
troop of friends ; and thus, at an early stage, begins that 
rivalry between these famous men which is to run through 
every phase of their careers, and only end with their 
lives. Coke gains his move, as is only just. Bacon's 
claim to the place left void by Coke, that of the Solicitor- 
General, is much more strong. Born at the bar and 
nursed on law, he has served to his profession an appren- 
ticeship of fourteen years. If Philosophy has been his 
Rachel, Law has been his Leah. A bencher and Reader 
of his Inn, he enjoys a good reputation in chambers and in 
the courts. The best judges at the bar approve his rise. 
Burghley and Cecil cautiously promote his suit, and 
Egerton presses it with a noble friendship on all who have 
power to help or harm. Yet in the end Thomas Fleming- 
gets the post, a man only known to the world for having 
stood in Bacon's way, and to the profession for his singular 
and disastrous ruling in the case of Bates. 

Bacon owes this loss of place to Robert Devereux, Earl 
of Essex : out of which cruel disappointment to him 

1. Chron. Jurid., 177; Lane's Reports, 22. 



1593. 

Sept. 



42 FRANCIS BACON. 

III. 1. springs the charge of ingratitude to a patron — treason to a 
friend. 

A plain history of events will show that the connexion 
of Bacon with Essex was one of politics and business ; that 
it brought no advantages to Bacon, and imposed on him 
no obligations ; that it ceased by the Earl's own acts ; 
that personally and politically Essex separated himself 
from Bacon, not Bacon from Essex ; that Bacon, in his 
efforts to save Essex while he believed him a true man, 
went the extremest lengths of chivalry ; and that, in 
acting against him when he proved himself a rebel and a 
traitor, he did no more than discharge his necessary duty 
to his country and his Queen. 

2. One of the nearest friends of Queen Elizabeth had 
been Catherine Carey, afterwards Lady Knollys, her cousin 
in the first degree of the Boleyn blood. They had been 
sisters' children, and had loved each other with more than 
sisters' love. Catherine had died young in years, and had 
been buried by her sovereign in Westminster Abbey with 
regal pomp. Essex was Catherine Carey's grandson ; 
in everything but the name he was a grandson to the 
childless Queen. This tie of blood the slanderers of her 
fame forget to state. Yet Essex and the two Careys were 
her only male relations on her mother's side, as James of 
Scotland was her sole surviving kinsman of the royal race. 
He had been born into her lap and into her heart. She 
loved him, too, for his father's sake ; Walter, Earl of 
Essex, having been a leal friend to her in those young days 
when friends were few and cold. As she seared into age, it 
pleased her eye to see the sons of her first stanch peers 

2. Craik's Romance of the Peerage, i. 5 ; Council Reg., April 13, 1589, 
April 14, 1591, June 21, 1592, 



Sept. 



ELIZABETH'S LOVE FOR ESSEX. 43 

around her throne. She had made Hunsdon chamberlain ; III. 2. 
she meant to make Cecil Secretary of State. She had loved — 
Sydney for his father's virtues ; she endured Essex in re- 
membrance of his father's fate. She had indeed much to bear 
with and forgive. More profuse than generous, more rash 
than brave, he tried her affection by his petulance and 
brawls ; but she clung to the orphan boy with that clannish 
pride which she had always felt for her mother's kin. She 
loaded him with favours. His jerks and whims, so galling 
to the council and the court, amused the Queen as signs of 
the Boleyn blood. Her mother had them ; Ins mother 
has them. That she ever loved him more than a lady of 
sixty years may love her cousin's grandchild is a mon- 
strous He. No woman can believe it : no man but a monk 
could have dreamt it. 

3. Yet this lie against chastity and womanhood has been 
repeated from generation to generation for two hundred 
and sixty years. It oozed from the pen of Father Parsons. 
It darkens the page of Lingard. Like most of the 
scandals against her — her jealousy of the wives of Leicester, 
of Ealeigh, of Essex even — it came from those wifeless 
monks, men of the confessional and the boudoir, who had 
spent their nights in gloating with Sanchez through the 
material mysteries of love, and in warping the tenderness 
and faith of woman into the filthy philosophy of their own 
' Disputationes de Sancto Matrimonii Sacramento.' Against 
such calumniators the Queen might appeal, like Marie 
Antoinette, to every woman's heart. Jealous of Lettice 

3. Elizabethse Anglise reginse, hseresim Calvinianam propugnantis, in 
catholicos sui regni edictum, quod in alios quoque reipublicse Christianas 
principes contumelias continet indignissimas. Promulgatum Londini 29 
Nov. 1591. Cum responsione ad singula capita : qua non tanturn saevitia 
et impietas tarn iniqui edicti, sed mendacia quoque et fraudes ac imposturse 
deteguntur et confutantur. Per D. Andream Philopatriun. 1592. 



1593. 
Sept. 



44 FRANCIS BACON. 

III. 3. Knollys, of Bessie Throckmorton, of Frances Sydney! 
Elizabeth was indeed vexed with them, but had she not 
cause ? Had not each of these courtiers married, not only 
without her knowledge as their Queen, but without honesty 
or honour? In secret, under circumstances of shame and 
guilt, Leicester had wedded her cousin's daughter Lettice. 
Would the head of any house be pleased with such a 
trick ? Kaleigh had brought to shame a lady of her court, 
young, lovely, brave as ever bloomed on a hero's hearth ; 
yet the daughter of a disloyal house, of one who had plotted 
against the Queen's crown and life. Could any prince 
in the world approve of such an act? Essex himself, a 
member of her race, a descendant of Edward the Third, had 
married, in secret and against her will, a woman of inferior 
birth, without beauty, youth, or fortune, a widow, who 
took him on her way from the arms of a first husband into 
those of a third. What kinswoman would have smiled on 
such a match ? 

Love for Essex warmer than that of an aged gentle- 
woman for a young and dashing kinsman would have been 
in her sin against nature not less than sin against nature's 
God. The letters of Catherine's grandson to the Queen, 
if bright with poetry, playfulness, and compliment, 
are, in tone and substance, dutiful and chaste. In the 
Queen's letters to him there is not a line she might not 
have written to a grandson of her own. 

4. She girt him with the fondness and with the fear of 
a mother. She never sent him from her side without a 
pang ; for she knew that he would knock his head against 
stone walls, that he would hurry brave men to a foolish 
end. Proud and high though his temper was, he could 

4. Lives and Letters of the Devereux Earls of Essex, 2 vols.. 1853, vii.-xiv. 



1593. 

Sept. 



SITUATION OF THE BROTHERS. 45 

neither lead others to victory like Kaleigh, nor defend his HI. 4 
own face from harm like Montjoy. If he sailed for Cadiz 
with Nottingham and Kaleigh to slack his fire, the Queen's 
work might be done, and he himself shine the bravest of 
the brave. If he went to Eouen alone, he scared the sleep 
from her pillow, and wrung the blood from her heart, by 
his reckless waste of her veteran troops. She petted him 
as a boy hopelessly brave, heroically frail ; but she deemed 
him such a fool, though a charming one, that anything he 
raved for must be wrong. If he fumed and fretted, put 
his head on her footstool, rushed into the country, pouted, 
and sulked, and raged, like a great spoiled child, she 
would not yield to his caprice. For ever asking something 
that he should not have, he would be Master of the Horse ; 
he would have the Cinq Ports ; he would command fleets 
and camps. 

5. In an evil day for Bacon this petulant noble swears he 
shall succeed to Coke. Essex and Bacon have been drawn 
together, less by the magnetism of character, though the 
Earl has a thousand showy and alluring ways, than by 
their common wants. Bacon is poor and works for bread. 
His brother Anthony is poor and lame. In the rooms at 
Gray's Inn they lie sick together, racked with pain and 
pestered by duns. Lady Ann does her best : sending 
them hogsheads of March beer, with plenty of good advice 
and scraps of Greek ; but the most she can do is little, 
and neither Greek nor good advice will discharge their 
weekly bills. 

A letter from Francis to Lady Bacon gives a glimpse 
into these troubles — the sickness, the fraternal love, the 
worrying debts. 

5. Lambeth MSS. 649, fol. 67, 100. 



1593. 

Sept. 



46 FRANCIS BACON. 

III. 5. FEANcrs Bacon to Lady Bacon. 

From Gray's Inn, April 16, 1593. 

My duty most humbly remembered. I assure 
myself that your ladyship, as a wise aucl kind mother to 
us both, will neither find it strange nor unwise that, ten- 
dering first my brother's health, which I know by mine 
own experience to depend not a little upon a free mind, 
and then his credit, I presume to put your ladyship in 
remembrance of your motherly offer to him the same day 
you departed, which was that to help him out of debt you 
would be content to bestow your whole interest in markes 
upon him. The which unless it would please your ladyship 
to accomplish out of hand, I have just cause to fear that 
my brother will be put to a very shrewde plunge, either to 
forfeit his reversion to Harwin (?) or else to undersell it very 
much ; for the avoiding of both which great inconveniences 
• I see no other remedy than your ladyship surrender in 
time, the formal drafte whereof I refer to my brother him- 
self, whom I have not any way as yet made acquainted 
with this my motion, neither mean to do till I hear from 
you. The ground whereof being only a brotherly care 
and affection, I hope your ladyship will think and accept 
of it accordingly : beseeching you to believe that being so 
near and dear part of me as he is, that cannot but be a grief 
unto me to see a mind that hath given so sufficient proof 
of wit (?) in having brought forth many good thoughts 
for the general to be overburdened and cumbered, with a 
care of clearing his particular estate. Touching myself, 
my diet, I thank God, hitherto hath wrought good effect, 
and am advised to continue this whole month, not meddling 
with any purgative physic more than I must needs, which 
will be but a trifle during my whole diet ; and so I most 
humbly take my leave. ^ t> 



1593. 
Sept. 



LETTER TO A MONEY-LENDER. 47 

6. No young fellow of Gray's Inn, waiting for the tide to III. 6 
flow, is sharper set for funds than the young knight for 
Middlesex or his elder brother. Anthony tries to raise his 
rents, and some of the men about him — godless rogues, as 
Lady Bacon says — propose that he shall let his farms to 
the highest bidders. Goodman Grinnell, who has the land 
at Barly, pays less than he ought : let him go out and a 
better man come in. But Goodman Grinnell speeds with 
his long face to Lady Ann. " What ! " cries the good 
lady to her son; "turn out the Grinnells! Why, the 
Grinnells have lived at Barly these hundred and twenty 
years ! " So the brothers have to look elsewhere. Bonds 
are coming due. A famous money-lender lives in the 
city, Spencer by name, rich as a Jew and close as a 
miser ; him they go to, cap in hand, and with honeyed 
words. The miser is a good miser, and allows his bond 
to lie. Francis writes to him from his brother Edward's 
house at Twickenham Park, to which he has removed from 
Gray's Inn for the benefit of country air. 

Francis Bacon to Mr. Spencer. 
GOOD Mr. SPENCER, Twickenham Park, Sept. 19, 1593. 

Having understood by my man your kind offer to 
send my brother and me our old bond, we both accept the 
same with hearty thanks, and pray you to cause a new to 
be made for half a year more, which I will both sign 
and seal before one Booth, a scrivener, here at Isleworth, 
and deliver it him to your use, which you know will be as 
good in law as though you were here present. True it is 
that I cannot promise that my brother should be here at 
that time to join with me, by reason of his daily attendance 
in court, by occasion whereof I am to be your sole debtor 

6. Lambeth MSS. 649, fol. 109. 



48 FRANCIS BACON. 

III. 6. in the new bond. As for the mesne profits thereof, you will 
— receive them presently. I have given charge to my man 
to deliver it. And so with my right hearty commendations 
P ' from my brother and myself, with like thanks for your 
good will and kindness towards us, which we always shall 
be ready to acknowledge when and wherein we may, I 
commit you to the protection of the Almighty. 

Your assured loving friend, 

Fk. Bacon. 

One likes to know that this good miser rose to be an 
alderman of London, and lived to see his daughter married 
to a peer. One dares not say, however, that one would 
like to have been Lord Compton, the husband of her 
choice, and heir of the miser's enormous hoard. 

7. Bacon lies sick the whole summer of 1593, as a 
note to his old friend Lady Paulett shows. Her lady- 
ship, who had been so kind to him in his younger days 
in France, is now a widow ; his good friend Sir Amias 
sleeping the great sleep under a splendid tomb in the 
chancel of St. Martin's church. Bacon is proud and glad 
to do the widow service. 

Francis Bacon to Lady Paulett. 

MADAM, Twickenham Park, Sept. 23, 1593. 

Being not able myself, by reason of my long 
languishing infirmity, to render unto your ladyship by a 
personal visitation the respect I owe unto your ladyship, I 
would not fail to acquit some part of my debt by sending 
this bearer, my servant, expressly to know how your lady- 
ship doth, which I beseech God may be no worse than I 

7. Lambeth MSS. 649, fol. 214. 



1593. 



CONNEXION WITH ESSEX. 49 

wish and have just cause to wish, considering your lady- HI. 7, 

ship's ancient and especial kindness towards me. Which if 

I have not hitherto acknowledged it hath been only for 

want of fit occasions, but no way of dutiful affection, as I e ^ ' 

hope in time, with God's help, I shall be able to verify by 

good effects towards the young gentleman Mr. Blount, your 

nephew, or any other that appertains unto your ladyship. 

This is, good madam, much less than you deserve and yet 

all I can offer, which, notwithstanding, I hope you will 

accept, not that it is aught worth of itself, but in respect 

of the unfeigned good will from whence it proceedeth. And 

so, with my humble and right hearty commendations unto 

your good ladyship, I beseech God to bless you with increase 

of comfort in mind and body, and admit you to his holy 

protection. 

Your ladyship's assured and ready in all kind affection 

to do you service, 

Fr. Bacon. 

8. Essex has need of strength such as these penniless 
men of genius have to spare. Francis Bacon has won all 
nature for his province. Anthony is a man of many parts ; 
gay, supple, secret ; fond of society and of affairs, of good 
wines and bright eyes ; at home in cloister and in court ; 
easy in morals, tolerant in creed ; hail fellow with the 
vagabond and the noble, the King's mistress, the profes- 
sional conspirator, the free lance, and the travelling monk. 
The two brothers enter into the Earl's service ; Francis as 
his lawyer and man of political business, Anthony as his 
secretary ; hoping, as many wise men hope, to make him 
the court leader of that great patriotic band of which 
Baleigh, Drake, and Vere are the fighting chiefs ; the one 

8. Lambeth MSS. 649 ; Devereux, i. 277 ; Sydney Papers, i. 360. 

E 



50 FBANCIS BACON. 

III. 8. part for which he is gifted beyond all other men. Under 

— their eyes he so far gains in gravity and sense that the 

1593 * Queen swears him of her Privy Council, and even trusts 

e P ' to his care much of her correspondence abroad. Day and 

night their tongues and pens are busy in this work. 

Anthony writes the Earl's letters, instructs his spies, drafts 

for him despatches to the agents in foreign lands. Francis 

shapes for him a plan of conduct at the court, and writes 

for him a treatise of advice which should have been the 

rule and would have been the salvation of his life. 

For all these labours the workmen must be paid. 

Oct. 3. 9. Duns weigh on the two brothers. Here are two 
notes to Lady Ann, both from Francis, full of the same 
sad romance of love and debt. One runs : 

Francis Bacon to Lady Bacon. 
MADAM, From the Court, Oct. 3, 1593. 

I received this afternoon at the Court your letter, 
after I had sent back your horse and written to you this 
morning. And for my brother's kindness, it is accustomed ; 
he never having yet refused his security for me, as I, on 
the other side, never made any difficulty to do the like by 
him, according to our several occasions. And therefore, if 
it be not to his own disfurnishing, which I reckon all one 
with mine own want, I shall receive good ease by that 
hundred pounds; specially your ladyship of your good- 
ness being content it shall be repaid of Mr. Boldroe's debt, 
which it pleased you to bestow upon me. And my desire 
is, it shall be paid to Knight at Gray's Inn, who shall re- 
ceive order from me to pay two fifths [?] (which I wish 
had been two hundred) where I owe, and where it presseth 

9. Lambeth MSS. 649, fol. 298, 274. 



LETTEKS TO LADY BACON. 51 

me most. Sir John Fortescue is not yet in Court ; both to III. 9. 
him and otherwise I will be mindful of Mr. Downing's — 
cause and liberty with the first opportunity. Mr. Nevill, 
my cousin, though I be further distant than I expected, c * * 
yet I shall have an apt occasion to remember. To my 
cousin Kemp I am sending. But that would rest between 
your ladyship and myself, as you said. Thus I commend 
your ladyship to God's good providence. 

Your Ladyship's most obedient, 

Fr. Bacon. 

Feancis Bacon to Lady Bacon. Nov. 2. 

MADAM, Twickenham Park, Nov. 2, 1593. 

I most humbly thank your ladyship for your letter 
and sending your man Bashawe to visit me, who purposeth 
with God's help so soon as possibly I can to do my duty to 
your ladyship, but the soonest I doubt will be to-morrow 
or next Monday come sennight. My brother, I think, will 
go to Saint Albans sooner, with my Lord Keeper, who 
hath kindly offered him room in his obscure lodgings there, 
as he hath already resigned unto him the use of his cham- 
ber in the Court. God forbid that your ladyship should 
trouble yourself with any extraordinary care in respect of 
our presence, which if we thought should be the least 
cause of your discontentment, we would rather absent our- 
selves than occasion any way your ladyship disquietness. 
As for Sotheram, I have been and shall be always ready 
to hear dutifully your ladyship's motherly admonitions 
touching him or any other man or matter, and to respect 
them as I ought. And so, with remembrance of my humble 
duties, I beseech God to bless and preserve your ladyship. 

F. B. 

e 2 



1594. 
Mar. 



52 FRANCIS BACON. 

III. 9. Essex is poor. Dress, dinners, horses, courtesans exhaust 
his coffers. If he cannot pay in coin he will pay in place. 
His servant Francis Bacon shall be made the Queen's 
Solicitor. Essex swears it. 

10. Until he swears it all goes well. Burghley supports 
his nephew. Egerton and Fortescue urge his suit with 
admiring friendship on the Queen. Cecil is warm in bis 
behalf ; not alone begging in his own name, but stirring 
up friends and making a party at the Court. Every one 
at the bar, save only Coke, admits his claim to place. 

Essex spoils all. At first the Queen is gracious ; extols 
Bacon's eloquence and wit, while doubting if he be deep in 
law. It only needs that his nomination shall be made in 
the proper way ; because it is the best, not because this or 
that lord of her Court may wish it made. This does not 
please the Earl. Pledged to make Bacon's fortune, he will 
not stoop to see his own debts paid by another hand. The 
work must be his own : " Upon me," he says, " must lie the 
labour of his establishment ; upon me the disgrace will 
light of his refusal." 

The Queen gets angry at this selfish pride. When he 
talks of Bacon she shuts her ears; but night and day 
he hammers at the name; doing his full of mischief; 
fretting and sulking till he drives her mad. Never were 
good intentions worse bestowed. A brief note from the 
Earl to Bacon brings the impatient Queen and her impor- 
tunate suitor on the scene : — 

The Earl of Essex to Francis Bacon. 
SlB, 24 March, 1594. 

The Queen did yesternight fly the gift, and I do 
wish, if it be no impediment to the cause you do handle 

10. tambeth MSS. 649, fol. 37, 60, 197 ; 650, fol. 109. 



1594. 
Mar. 24. 



THE SOLICITORSHIP. 53 

to-morrow, you did attend again this afternoon. I will be III. 10 
at the Court in the evening, and go with Mr. Vice-Cham- 
berlain, so as, if you fail before we come, yet afterwards I 
doubt not but he or I shall bring you together. This I 
write in haste because I would have no opportunity omitted 
in this point of access. I wish to you as to myself, and 

rest 

Your most affectionate friend, 

Essex. 

The Queen will not see him. She will not have her 
freedom of selection curbed. 

11. Bacon is surprised and hurt. His hopes for the May 1. 
moment dashed, he perceives no chance of succeeding 
even at a better time, unless the Queen can be induced 
to leave the Solicitorship for the present void. To this 
end he applies to his cousin Cecil. Here is his note : 

Francis Bacon to Sir Eobert Cecil. 

Gray's Inn, May 1, 1594. 

My most honoeable good Cousin, 

Your honour in your Avisdom doth well perceive 
that my access at this time is grown desperate in regard of 
the hard terms that as well the Earl of Essex as Mr. Vice- 
Chamberlain, who were to have been the means thereof, 
stand in with her in acceding to their occasions. And 
therefore I am now only to fall upon that point of delaying 
and preserving the matter entire till a better constellation, 
which, as it is not hard, as I conceive, considering the proving 
business and the instant Progress, &c, so I commend in 
special to your honour's care, who in sort assured me 
thereof, and upon [whom] now in my lord of Essex' 
11. Lambeth MSS. 650, fol. 125. 



54 FRANCIS BACON. 

III. 11. absence I have only to rely. And if it be needful, I 

— humbly pray you to move my Lord your father to lay his 

1594. sure k an( j to the same delay. And so I wish you all in- 

ivlay 1 . crease f honour. 

Your poor kinsman in faithful prayers and duty, 

Francis Bacon. 

Cecil, who knows that the Earl, and none but the Earl, 
stands in the way of his cousin's rise, writes back, on the 
same sheet of paper, in the left corner, these words : — 

Sir Kobert Cecil to Francis Bacon. 
Cousin, 

I do think nothing cuts the throat more of your 
present access than the Earl's being somewhat troubled at 
this time. For the delaying, I think it not hard ; neither 
shall there want my best endeavours to make it easy, of 
which I hope you shall not need to doubt. By the judg- 
ment which I gather of divers circumstances confirming my 
opinion, I protest I suffer with you in mind that you are 
thus yet gravelled ; but time will founder all your compe- 
titors and set you on your feet, or else I have little under- 
standing. 

12. For the first time in his life Bacon is now a stranger 
at the court. Lady Ann lies sick at Gorhambury ; so sick, 
that the " good Christian and Saint of God," as her son 
affectionately calls her, makes up her soul for death. 
Two of her household have been snatched away from her 
side by plague or fever. She is down with ague. Bacon 
wrestles with her resignation, praying her to use all 
helps and comforts that are good for her health, to the end 

12. Lambeth MSS. 649, fol. 232; 650, fol. 140. 



1594. 
June 9. 



LADY BACON'S ILLNESS. 55 

that she may be spared to her children and her friends, III. 12. 
and to that church of God which has so much need of 
her. Here is the letter from which these particulars are 
derived : 

Francis Bacon to Lady Bacon. 

June 9, 1594. 

My humble duty remembered, I was sorry to under- 
stand by Goodman Sotheram that your ladyship did find 
any weakness, which I hope was but caused by the season 
and weather, which waxeth more hot and faint. I was 
not sorry, I assure your ladyship, that you came not up, 
in regard that the stirring at this time of year, and the 
place where you should lie not being very open nor fresh, 
might rather hurt your ladyship than otherwise. And for 
anything to be passed to Mr. Trot, such is his kindness, as 
he demancleth it not; and therefore, as I am to thank 
your ladyship for your willingness, so it shall not be 
needful but upon such an occasion as may be without 
your trouble, which the rather may be because I purpose, 
God willing, to come down, and it be but for a day, to visit 
your ladyship, and to do my duty to you. In the mean 
time I pray your health, as you have done the part of a 
good Christian and Saint of God in the comfortable pre- 
paring for your duty. So nevertheless, I pray, deny not 
your body the due, nor your children and friends, and 
the church of God, which hath use of you, but that you 
enter not into further conceit than is cause ; and withal 
use all comforts and helps that are good for your health 
and strength. In truth I have heard Sir Thomas Scuda- 
more often complain, after his quartain had ceased, that 
he found such a heaviness and swelling under his ribs 
that he thought he was buried under earth all from the 



56 FRANCIS BACON. 

III. 12. waist ; and therefore that accident no bad incident. Thus 

— I commend your ladyship to God's good preservation from 

grief. 
J une 9 - Your ladyship's most obedient son, 

Fk. Bacon. 

It may be I shall have occasion, because nothing is yet 
done in the choice of a Solicitor, to visit the Court this 
vacation, which I have not now done this month's time, in 
which respect, because having sent to and fro spoyleth it, 
I would be glad of that light bed of stripes which your 
ladyship hath, if you have not otherwise disposed it. 

Aug 20. 13. The Saint of God is spared to her sons for a little 
while. When Francis makes her a visit he finds her weak 
with pain, her memory failing like her health, but her 
tongue and pen as swift to advise as ever. Anthony's 
easy nature, his indulgence of his men, his love of finery 
and show and pleasure, wring the poor lady's heart. She 
wants to see him marry and amend his ways; but she 
talks of a wife in vain to this gay companion of the young 
Earls of Essex, Kutland, and Southampton. She would 
not mind stripping her house of everything for him, her 
pictures, her carpets, and her chairs, if her elder born 
would only marry a sober and religious girl. But all 
pretty faces are to him the same. When Francis rides 
away from Gorhambury, she sends after him a string 
of pigeons and a world of pious and tender exhortations 
for the good of body and soul. 

Lady Bacon to Francis Bacon. 

20th Aug. 1594. 

I was so full of back-pain when you came hither, that 
my memory was very slippery. I forgot to mention of 

13. Lambeth MSS. 650, fol. 168, 171, 223. 



ADVICE FROM LADY BACON. 57 

rents. If you have not, I have not, received Frank's last III. 13. 
half-year of Midsummer, the first half so long unpaid. You — 
will mar your tenants if you suffer them. Mr. Brocquet ' 

is suffered by your brother to cosen me and beguile me Au &- 20, 
without check. I fear you came too late to London for 
your horse : ever regard them. I desire Mr. Trot to 
hearken to some honest man, and cook too as he may. If 
you can hear of a convenient place I shall be willing if it 
so please God ; for Lawson will draw your brother wherever 
he chooses, as I really fear, and that with false semblance. 
God give you both good health and hearts to serve him truly, 
and bless you always with his favour. I send you pigeons 
taken this day, and let blood. Look well about you and 
yours too. I hear that Eobert Knight is but sickly. I am 
sorry for it. I do not write to my Lord-Treasurer, because 
you like to stay. Let this letter be unseen. Look very 
well to your health; sup not, nor sit up late. Surely I 
think your drinking to bedwards hindereth your and your 
brother's digestion very much. I never knew any but 
sickly that used it, besides being ill for heads and eyes. 
Observe well, yet in time. Farewell in Christ. 

A. Bacon. 

At court affairs look grave. Elizabeth will not have a 
man forced on her for selfish ends. She hears bad news 
enough to worry the stoutest heart : now a stir among the 
Irish rebels, now the threat of a descent from Spain. 
Francis writes to Anthony : — 



Francis Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

BROTHER, Gray's Inn, Aug. 26, 1594. 

My cousin Cook is some four days home, and ap- 
pointed towards Italy that day sennight, I pray take care 



Aug. 26. 



58 



FRANCIS BACON. 



1594. 
Aug. 26 



III. 13. for the money to be paid over within four or five days. 
The sum you will remember is 150?. I hear nothing from 
the Court in mine own business. There hath been a 
defeat of some force in Ireland by Macguire which troubleth 
the Queen, being unaccustomed to such news ; and there- 
upon the opportunity is alleged to be lost to move her. 
But there is an answer by the coming in of the Earl of 
Tyrone as was expected. 

I steal to Twickenham, purposing to return this night, 
else I had visited you as I came from the town. Thus in 
haste I leave you to God's preservation. 

Your entire loving brother, 

Fr. Bacon. 



Anthony is not now at Gray's Inn Square, having 
taken a house in Bishopsgate-street, a fashionable part 
of the city, near the famous Bull Inn, where plays are 
performed before cits and gentlemen, very much to the 
delight of Essex and his jovial crew, but very much, as 
Lady Ann conceives, to the peril of her son's soul. The 
good mother cannot put old heads on young necks, say 
what she will. " I am sorry," she writes to her easy 
elder-born, " your brother and you charge yourselves 
with superfluous horses ; the wise will laugh at you ; 
being but trouble to you both ; besides your debts, long 
journeys, and private persons. Earls be earls." There 
is the rub. Lady Ann knows, and does not love, these 
madcap earls. 

By help of Cecil, and the Vice-Chamberlain, Eulke 
Greville, Bacon succeeds so far as to get the nomination of 
Solicitor put off. For more than a year the situation 
undergoes no change. 



THE ROMAN LEAGUE. 59 

14. The Queen is full of care ; the tug and tempest of III. 14. 
her reign being close at hand. The league of Pope and 

King, baffled by the swift scene at Fotheringay, broken by 
the loss of the Invincible Armada and the victories of 
Henri Quatre, has again been formed. Plans for seizing- 
Guernsey and Jersey, arming the Ulster insurgents, 
throwing troops into Wales, and rousing a London mob, 
have been warmly debated in Madrid. Medina Coeli 
commands a mighty force at Cadiz. Philip at Madrid, 
Cardinal Archduke Albrecht at Brussels, are counting, 
pensioning, directing the English exiles, men amongst 
whom Wright and Winter, Stanley and Tresham, enjoy 
conspicuous favour. Father Parsons, Father Creswell, 
and Father Holt, the most bigoted and brazen of the 
English Jesuits, busy themselves among the needy and 
fanatical desperadoes of foreign courts and camps, every- 
where vilifying the land which has cast them out, and 
whetting against their Queen the assassin's knife. Nor 
do they toil in vain. Two military ruffians, Captain 
Eichard Williams and Captain Edward Yorke, offering 
to become the Clements — the Kavaillacs — of a more 
atrocious crime, cross the sea, and when taken, knife 
in hand, and flung into the Tower, confess that they 
have come into England commissioned by their spiritual 
and military chiefs for murder. They implicate by name 
Sir William Stanley and Father Holt. 

15. Bacon is sick of heart ; looks wan and thin, as all June 3. 
the world takes note. The heady Earl has proved to him 

14. J. Cecil to Sir R. Cecil, Mar. 1594, S. P. O. ; Examination of Capt. 
Edward Yorke, Aug. 12, 1594, S. P. O. ; Declaration of Henry Yonge, 
Aug. 12, 1594, S. P. O. ; Confession of Richard Williams, Aug. 27, 1594, 
S. P. O. ; Catalogue of Rebels and Fugitives receiving Pensions from Spain, 
Sept. 1594, S. P. O. ; Council Reg., Oct. 29, 1594. 

15. Lambeth MSS. 651, fol. 144. Patent Rolls 38 Eliz. par. vi. 25. 



60 FKANCIS BACON. 

III. 15. a fatal friend. Lady Ann pours on her son these counsels 

and consolations. 
1595. 

June 3. 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

June 3, 1595. 
I am sorry your brother with inward secret grief 
hindereth his health. Everybody saith he looketh thin 
and pale. Let him look to God and confer with Him in 
godly exercise of hearing and reading, and continue to be 
noted to take care. I had rather ye both, with God's 
blessed favour, had very good healths, and were well out 
of debt, than any office. Yet though the earl showed 
great affection, he marred all with violent courses. 

I pray God increase His fear in his heart and a hatred 
of sin ; indeed, halting before the Lord and backsliding 
are very pernicious. I am heartily sorry to hear how he 
[the Earl of Essex] sweareth and gameth unreasonably. 
God cannot like it. 

I pray show your brother this letter, but to no creature 
else. Eemember me and yourself. 

Your mother, 

A. B. 

If the Queen hangs back, and if Burghley hesitates, it is 
not from dislike or distrust to Bacon ; but simply because 
so grave a nomination as a successor to Coke ought not 
to be made as a bounty or a submission to the Earl. The 
more they feel that such a post can never be filled in such 
a way, the more they strive to let the world see that the 
advocate, not the candidate, is in fault. 
July 14. At the express suggestion of Burghley and Fortescue, the 
Queen appoints Bacon one of her Counsel Learned in the 



1595. 
July 14. 



GRANT FROM THE CROWN. 61 

Law, and confers on him, at a nominal rent, a good estate. HI. 1 5 

This grant comprises sixty acres, more or less of wood, in 

the forest of Zelwood in the county of Somerset, known as 

the Pitts ; which Bacon receives from the Crown on a rent 

of seven pounds ten shillings a-year, payable at the feasts 

of St. Michael the Archangel, and of the Annunciation of 

the Virgin. 

16. If Elizabeth pauses in her choice of a Solicitor- Aug. 7. 
General, her servants see that Bacon's hopes are for the 
moment dead. Lady Ann hears this bad news at Gor- 
hambury, and writes to console her sons. 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

Aug. 7, 1595. 

If Her Majesty have resolved upon the negative for 

your brother, as I hear, truly, save for the brust a little, I 

am glad of it. God in His time hath better in store I 

trust. For considering his kind of health and what cumber 

pertains to that office, it is best for him I hope. Let us 

all pray the Lord we make us to profit by His fatherly 

correction ; doubtless it is His hand, and all for the best, 

and love to His children that will seek Him first, and 

depend upon His goodness. Godly and wisely love ye, 

like brethren, whatsoever happen, and be of good courage 

in the Lord, with good hope. 

A. B. - 

And how does Bacon bear this prospect of defeat? 
Merrily, it seems. There is a glimpse of him in his 
mother's notes to Anthony : — " With a humble heart before 
God, let your brother be of good cheer. Alas ! what excess 

16. Lambeth MSS. 651, fol. 211. 



62 FRANCIS BACON. 

III. 16. of bucks at Gray's Inn ! And to feast it on the Sabbath ! 

— God forgive and have mercy upon England ! " 
loy o. 

| Sept. 17. A fleet has gone from Plymouth under Drake. A 

fleet more terrible to the Don is arming under Ealeigh. 

Drake is a marauder, Ealeigh a statesman. If he can 

burn Nombre di Dios and spoil the carracks of Margarita, 

Drake will be at peace. Ealeigh, fresh from his romantic 

voyage to the Amazon, flushed with the hope of conquest 

and discovery, is bent on founding States. 

Bacon, who sees in Ealeigh, not alone the nimble wit, 

the proud courtier, the dashing seaman, but the leader of 

vast horizon, of philosophic thought, would like to keep 

Essex on easy terms with him ; the two men holding, as 

far as might be, a common course in politics and in war. 

Their loves and hates are much the same. Each longs for 

war ; a war of books and laws against Eome, a war of pikes 

and culverins against Spain. Each in his own person 

represents the youth and genius of the time : Essex that 

of the nobles, Ealeigh of the gentry. Each of the two 

seems to Bacon needful to the other and to the common 

cause: the Queen's kinsman to uphold it against timid 

counsels at court, the founder of Virginia to maintain 

it against Philip's admirals on the Spanish Main. A 

frank and loyal union of these two men would give 

England the free use of all her arms; in the long run 

it would save them both from the block. With tongue 

and pen Bacon labours to make peace between them. 

He seeks to push the new expedition. In spite of 

Ealeigh's pride, which often mars his work, he repeats to 

Essex that Ealeigh will be his stanchest and safest friend. 

17. Elizabeth to Ealeigh, Nov. 1595, S. P. O. ; Notes of the Supple- 
mental part of the Entertainment given at York House, Nov. 17, 1595, 
S. P. O. 



1595. 
Sept. 



MASQUE AT YOEK HOUSE. 63 

Essex is preparing to receive the Queen at York House HI. 17. 
in the Strand with a grand entertainment and a sumptuous 
masque ; for which masque Bacon is composing characters 
and words. The play being given in Essex's name, 
here are the means for a striking and conspicuous com- 
pliment to Raleigh. Bacon frames a scene in happy 
allusion to the regions of the Amazon and to Raleigh's 
voyage. 

18. Essex has not the grace to let it stand. The glory Nov. 
of Raleigh breaks his rest, for he himself aspires to be all 

that Raleigh is — renowned in war even more than in letters 
and in courts. He strikes his pen through Bacon's lines, 
which drop from the acted scene and from the printed 
masque. A contemporary copy of this suppressed part 
remains in the State Paper Office : a proof how much, 
five years before the Earl rushes into high treason, Bacon 
leans to the side of her Majesty's Captain of the Guard. 

The opportunity thrown away by Essex, Burghley and 
Cecil hug to their hearts. They give, not only their 
countenance to Raleigh, but their money to the Guiana 
voyage ; Burghley contributing five hundred pounds, Cecil 
a new ship, the hull of which alone costs him eight 
hundred pounds. 

19. The Earl's want of tact and temper is more hurt- Nov. 5, 
ful to his friends than to his foes. He does Raleigh no 1595. 
great harm ; he causes Bacon the most grievous loss. 

Give me this place of the Solicitor — he drums and drums 
at the Queen's ear. She says her law officers should be 
chosen by herself, and for their good parts, not to please 

18. Entertainment given to the Queen at York House, Nov. 17, 1595 ; 
Sydney Papers, i. 377. 

19. Warrant Book, Nov. 5, 1595. 



64 



FRANCIS BACON. 



III. 19. 

1595. 
Nov. 



the fancy or make good the pledges of a carpet knight. 
She will not do a right thing for a bad reason or in a 
wrong way. Her courts are crowded with able men. She 
is old enongh to choose a servant for herself. As Essex 
grows hot, she cools : when he storms upon her and will 
not be denied, she turns from the spoiled boy, her nomi- 
nation made. Bacon must wait ; Fleming shall be her 
man. 



20, Lord Campbell says, as writers have said from 
the days of Bushel, that the Earl atoned to Bacon for his 
failure by a gift of Twickenham Park. It happens, 
however, that Twickenham Park was not, and never had 
been, the Earl's to give. That lovely seat, which blooms 
by the Thames, close under Bichmoncl Bridge, fronting 
the old palace, and some of the elms of which stand, 
venerable and green, in the days of Victoria, belonged 
to the Bacons. In 1574, while Essex was a boy at 
Chartley, Twickenham Park, together with More Mead 
and Ferry Mead, the adjoining lands, was granted by 
the Queen to Edward Bacon on lease. The lease is 
enrolled, and a copy of it may be read in one of the 
appendices of this book. Francis lived in the house, 
as his letters prove, long before Fleming's patent of 
Solicitor passed the Seal. It had all the points of 
a good country house; a green landscape, wood and 
water, pure air, a dry soil, vicinity to the court and to 
the town. From his windows he could peer into the 
Queen's alleys ; in an hour he could trot up to Whitehall 
or Gray's Inn. Every plant that thrives, every flower that 
blows, in the south of England, loves the Twickenham soil. 
There were cedars in the great park, swans on the river, 



20. Rolls, Mar. 3, 16 Eliz., Record Office. 



ESSEX'S GIFT OF LAND. 65 

singing-birds in the copse ; every sight to engage the eye, III. 20. 
every sound to please the ear. — 

He loved the house, and lived in it when he could steal 1595. 
away from Gray's Inn. It was his house of letters and ov " 
philosophy, as the lodging in Gray's Inn Square was his 
house of politics and law. In fact, when the Earl ferried 
over from Eichmond Palace, he leapt from his barge on to 
Bacon's lawn. 

21. Unable to pay his debt by a public office, Essex 
feels that he ought to pay it in money or in money's worth. 
The lawyer has done his work, must be told his fee. But 
the Earl has no funds. His debts, his amours, his camp 
of servants eat him up. He will pay in a patch of land. 
To this Bacon objects : not that he need scruple at taking 
wages ; not that the mode of payment is unusual ; not 
that the price is beyond his claim. Four years have been 
spent in the Earl's service. To pay in land is the fashion 
of a time when gold is scarce and soil is cheap. Nor is 
the patch too large ; at most it may be worth 12001. or 
15001. After Bacon's improvements and the rise of rents, 
he sells it to Beynold Nicholas for 1800?. It is less than 
the third of a year's income from the Solicitor-General's 
place. Bacon's doubts have a deeper source. Knowing 
the Earl's fiery temper, and sharing in some degree his 
mother's fears, he shrinks from incurring feudal obligations 
to one so vain and weak. Hurt by his hesitation, Essex 
pouts and sulks ; being, as he truly says, the sole cause of 
this loss of place, he will die of vexation if he be not 
allowed in some small measure to repair it. Bacon 

21. Sir Francis Bacon, his Apologie in certain imputations concerning 
the late Earl of Essex, written to his very good Lord the Earl of Devon- 
shire, 1604, 13, 16. 



1595. 

Nov. 



66 FRANCIS BACON. 

III. 21. submits. Yet even in taking the strip of ground, he betrays 
the uneasy sentiment lurking in his heart. " My Lord," 
he says, " I see I must be your homager and hold land of 
your gift ; but do you know the manner of doing homage 
in law? Always it is with saving of his faith to the 
King." 

22. What says the Queen ? Writers who laud the gene- 
rosity of a man to whom Bacon owed loss of character and 
loss of place, denounce the stinginess of a woman to whose 
noble and unfailing friendship he owed almost everything 
which he possessed on earth. These scribes are hard to 
please : they treat Bacon as a rogue whom it is the duty 
of honest men to scourge; yet decry the Queen for 
laying on the lash. What would they have ? If Bacon 
were the rascal they have made him, surely the Queen 
would have done well in starving his powers of mis- 
chief ! Their reasoning is faulty as their facts. Inquiry at 
the Rolls Office would have shown them that, even 
while she was naming Fleming for her Solicitor-General, 
Elizabeth was Francis Bacon's most warm and munificent 
friend. 

She long ago gave him a reversion of the Registry of 
the Star Chamber ; a post, when he should get it, worth 
1600Z. a year. As he could no more spare his jest than 
Tully, he said it was like having another man's land near 
his house : it improved his prospect, but did not fill his 
barn. With woeful lack of humour, Bawley mistook this 
truly Baconian laughter for a groan ; and the poor chaplain's 
petulant wail misled Montagu into dreaming, contrary to 
all the evidence of Bolls and grants, that Elizabeth put the 

22. Montagu, xvi., part i. 27. 



1595. 
Nov. 



THE QUEEN'S GRANTS. 67 

yoke on Bacon's neck. This blunder of Kawley drove Mon- HI. 22. 
tagu to the drollest shifts. Knowing how Bacon cherished 
her fame in his heart of hearts, how was the biographer to 
reconcile this fable of her stinginess to him with the fact 
of his undying gratitude to her ? He hit on the queerest 
explanation. Does a father who loves his son spare the 
rod ? Are not pangs and stripes good for the soul ? Yes, 
the great Queen must have understood the great man; 
in mercy to the world, she crossed him at the bar and 
starved him at the court ! Macaulay rent and tossed this 
amazing theory ; but neither he nor Lord Campbell ever 
paused to ask if it were true that Elizabeth left him to 
starve. 

23. The reversion of the Star Chamber, the grant of 
Zelwood Forest, the post of her Counsel learned in the Law, 
are but a foretaste of her love. Edward Bacon's lease of 
Twickenham Park has just expired ; that lovely home by 
the water edge will be his no more. The house has an 
importance beyond the beauty of its site; a merit rarer 
than the green mead, the leafy wood, the rushing stream, 
the whitening swans ; it stands all day in the sovereign's 
sight. To live in such a place is to be a daily guest in her 
Majesty's mind. The house is good, the park spacious; 
within the pales are eighty-seven acres of lawn and pas- 
ture, lake and orchard ; beyond the pales five or six acres 
of mead and field. It is a home for a prince. 

Fourteen years ago the park had been leased to Milo 
Dodding for thirty years, commencing from the expiration 
of Edward Bacon's term ; but on passing to Fleming the 
patent of his place, the gracious Queen makes over to 

23. Rot. 38 Eliz., pars vi. 20, Record Office. 

F 2 



68 FRANCIS BACON. 

III. 23. Francis Bacon a reversion of this lease. On the fifth 
of November Fleming gets his commission as Solicitor- 
G-eneral ; on the seventeenth of November, the day of his 
masque at York House, of his proposed compliment to the 
Guiana voyage, Bacon's grant of the reversion of Twicken- 
ham Park passes under the Privy Seal. 



1595. 
Nov. 17. 



EMPLOYED IN THE QUEEN'S SERVICE. 69 



CHAPTEE IV. 



TREASON OF SIR JOHN SMYTH. 



1. The Queen not only endows Bacon with lands, and with IV. 1. 
the reversion of lands and offices, but employs him in — 
her legal and political affairs; often in business which 
would seem to belong exclusively to the department of ^' 

Fleming or of Coke. As her Counsel learned in the Law, 
he is engaged in the prosecution of William Kandal. He 
is consulted in the more momentous charge against Sir 
John Smyth, who stands accused of no less a crime than 
that of an attempt, under circumstances of peculiar guilt, j 
to provoke a military mutiny and insurrection against the ) 
Queen. 

2. In the spring of 1596 an expedition, meant to an- 
ticipate the Eoman league, has been arming in the 
Thames. Its destination is unknown, though the few 
suspect that a blow will fall on the most prosperous and beau- 
tiful of Spanish ports. Kaleigh is still at home ; Keymish 
having gone with his fleet of ships to the mouths of the 
Amazon. Vere and Effingham are drilling troops. Essex 
— martial, if not military — is pouting for command. An- 
thony and Francis Bacon busy themselves in collecting- 
news for the Queen from foreign spies and foreign Gazettes. 
While the Earl of Essex lies at Plymouth, waiting for 

1. Egerton, Fleming, and Bacon to the Council, May 3, 1596, S. P. O. ; 
Lucas to the Council, June 23, 1596, S. P. O. 

2. Lambeth MSS. 657, fol. 29, 30. 



70 FEANCIS BACON. 

IV. 2. Kaleigh and the rear-guard of his fleet to come round, 

— Francis writes to his brother : — 
1596. 

Francis Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

My very good Brother, May 15, 1596. 

I have remembered your salutation to Sir John 
Fortescue, and delivered him the Gazette, desiring him to 
reserve it to read in his barge. He acknowledgeth it to 
be of another sort than the common. I delivered him 
account so much of E. Hawkins' letter as contained ad- 
vertisements copied out; which is the reason I return the 
letter to you now ; the Gazette being gone with him to 
the court. 

The next words consecutive I have not acquainted him 
with, nor any of them. The body is for more apt time. 
So, in haste, I wish you comfort as I write. 

Your entire loving brother, 

Fr. Bacon. 

Fourteen days later, the fleet now riding in Plymouth 
Sound, he writes again. Anthony, tiring of the Earl's 
unprofitable service, wishes to be sent abroad as agent or 
ambassador : a post for which he is eminently fit. To his 
suit for such a place Francis refers : — 

Francis Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

GOOD BROTHER, From the Court, May 31st, 1596. 

Yesternight Sir John Fortescue told me you had 
not many hours before imparted to the Queen your adver- 
tisement, and the Gazettes likewise, which the Queen 
desired Mr. H. Stanhope to read all over unto her ; and her 
Majesty commandeth they be not made vulgar. The ad- 



LETTER TO HIS BROTHER ANTHONY. 71 

vertisement her Majesty made estimation of, as concurring IV. 2. 
with the other advertisements, and belike concurring also — 
with her opinion of the affairs. So he willed me to 15yb - 
return to you the Queen's speeches. Other particulars of a ^ 
any speech from her Majesty of yourself he did not repeat 
to me. For my Lord of Essex and the Lord-Treasurer, he 
said he was ready and disposed to do his best. But I 
seemed to make it only a love-suit, and passed presently 
from it, the rather because it was late in the night, and I 
was to deal with him on some better occasion after another 
manner, as you shall hereafter understand from me. I do 
find in the speech of some ladies, and the very fairest of 
this court, some additions of reputation as methinks to be 
both ; and I doubt not but God hath an operation (?) in it 
that will not suffer good endeavours to perish. The Queen 
saluted me to-day as she went to supper. I had long 
speech with Sir Robert Cecil this morning, who seemed apt 
to discourse with me. Yet of your hest not a word (?) 
This I write to you in haste, aliud ex alio. I pray you, in 
the course of acquainting my Lord, say, where presseth, at 
first by me, after from yourself, I am more and more 
bound to him. Thus, wishing you good health, I commend 
you to God's happiness. 

Your entire loving brother, 

Fk. Bacon. 

3. Against the Queen's sounder sense, Essex gets com- 
mand of the land forces told off for a dash at Cadiz. On 
the eve of sailing, conscious that, though he may have 
meant the best, he has done for Bacon the worst that man 
could do, he writes in kindly but superfluous words to 

3. Lambeth MSS. 657, 90. 



72 FRANCIS BACON. 



IV. 3. recommend him to the care of his oldest and sagest friend. 

1596. 

May. 



— Thus, in generous helplessness, he writes to Egerton :• 
1596. 



Essex to Loed Keeper Egerton. 
My VEKY GOOD LOED, May 27, 1596. 

I do understand by my good friend Mr. F, B. 
how much he is bound to your lordship for your favour. 
I do send your lordship my best thanks, and do protest 
unto you there is no gentleman in England of whose 
good fortune I have been more desirous. I do still retain 
the same mind ; but, because my intercession hath rather 
hurt him than done him good, I dare not move the 
Queen for him. To your lordship I earnestly commend 
the care I have of his advancement ; for his parts were 
never destined to a private and (if I may so speak) an idle 
life. That life I call idle that is not spent in public 
business ; for otherwise he will ever give himself worthy 
tasks. Your lordship, in performing what I desire, will 
oblige us both, and within very short time see such fruit 
of your own work as wdll please you well. So, com- 
mending your lordship to God's best protection, I rest, at 

your lordship's commandment, 

Essex. 

June. 4. At length they are gone ; Effingham, Ealeigh, Vere, 

Montjoy, all the great fighting men, on board ; leaving 
England for the moment bare of fleets or troops.. Twelve 
days have worn since the ships weighed anchor in Plymouth 
Sound, and not one word of news has come to shore. They 
may be hundreds of fathoms deep in the Bay of Biscay, 

4. Gilbert to Ealeigh, Mar. 16, 1596, S. P. O. ; Gorges to Burghley, 
April 12, 1596, S. P. O. ; Proclamation by the Earl of Essex, April 14, 
1596, S. P. O. ; Queen Elizabeth to Cobham, June 7, 1596, S. P. O. ; 
Council Reg,, June 1 to August 7, 1596. 



1596. 
June. 



DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS. 73 

or lie crushed and strewn under Lisbon rock. Should they IV. 4, 
have perished as the Invincible Armada perished ! It is 
known that the Twelve Apostles, gigantic Andalusian 
war-ships, float in Cadiz bay ; that a fleet of transports 
rides at the Groyne ; that a Spanish army of horse and 
foot crouches behind the heights of San Sebastian and the 
walls of Bilboa ; that a body of victorious troops, flushed 
with the assault of Calais, occupies the dunes which look 
on Dover cliffs. It is felt that a storm, a repulse, even a 
dead calm, may give the signal for a swarm of Pandours 
and Walloons to burst into Kent. 

Some, in this day of dark suspense, dispute the policy 
of having sent the fleet on such a cruise — many blame the 
ambition which pulls the weaver from his loom, the hind 
from his plough. Every one has to submit to loss of 
money or loss of time. The train-bands garrison the city 
and protect the Court. Lord Cobham holds the Cinque 
Ports. Sir Thomas Lucas puts the men of Colchester 
under drill. The bombardiers of Dover, Plymouth, and 
Milford Haven stand to their guns. Musters for defence 
gather even in the midland and northern shires ; where, at 
a call from the Privy Council, yeomen snatch down their 
bills and pikes, often rusty and out of date, bills which had 
been swung in Bosworth field, bows which had been drawn 
at Agincourt. On every village green, and under every 
market-cross, drums beat and tabors sound the local force 
to arms. 

5. Now is the time for friends of Kome to strike. Where June 1 2. 
there is much to bear, a man of weak understanding will 

5. Elizabeth's Letters Patent to raise troops in Kent, Sussex, Middlesex, 
and Surrey, for relief of Calais, April 1596, S. P. O. ; Smyth to Cecil, 
Mar. 14, 1600, S. P. O. ; Discourse of the Providence necessary to be had 
for the setting up of the Catholic Faith, Aug. 1600, S. P. O. 



1596. 
June 12 



74 FKANCIS BACON. 

IV. 5. infer that, despite ambition and pride of race, there must 
be fires of discontent ready to flare out. When dis- 
content is armed, it may be led to abuse its strength ; so 
at least reasons the rich country gentleman, Sir John 
Smyth. 

Smyth is a Koman Catholic, owner of Baddow and Cog- 
geshall, in Essex ; a friend of the great Seymour family ; an 
ally of Catherine de' Medici ; a correspondent of the foreign 
Jesuits and priests. His life has been one long plot. In 
the war now booming, all his love lies beyond the sea. 
The doctrine taught by Parsons and Bellarmino, that a 
good Boman Catholic must fight and pray for his Church, 
even against his native sovereign and his native land, is an 
active portion of his creed. Others may wish to maim the 
government, may pray for storms to whelm or cannon to 
crush the English fleet ; Smyth, alone, is fool enough to 
risk his neck by active measures in support of the allies 
of his Church. The fighting men gone, he beholds the 
Queen, the lords of her Council, all the peers of her 
realm, at the mercy, as he thinks, of an armed, uncertain 
mob. A march on London, a fight under the windows of 
Whitehall, may cause the fleets to hie back to Plymouth, 
or the Spaniards to cross the Straits. 

Cries are never wanting to a traitor. There is the old, 
old feud of poor against rich ; the old, old aversion of local 
troops to serve the Crown in its foreign wars. Unhappily 
both these feuds are now malignant : that between rich 
and poor being embittered by the recent conversion of a 
vast extent of plough-land into pasture, by the destruction 
of a great number of cottages and holdings, and by the 
increase of sheep-walks and of parks for the preservation 
of red and fallow deer ; that between the local troops and 
the Crown, by reports that the musters have been forced 



June 12. 



SMYTH'S TKEASON. 75 

to go on board the fleet, and that soldiers raised in the IV. 5. 
metropolitan shires have been sent by the Government — 
into France. 1596 ' 

The decay of tillage, the increase of sheep and deer, 
are for the yeoman class, and for the country of which they 
are the thew and sinew, dark events. The yeomen kick 
against the goad ; for, not being skilled in science, they 
cannot see that they are driven from their farms by the 
operations of a natural law. If they have ever heard that, 
as wool pays better than rent, their landlords prefer sheep 
to men, the news has not reconciled them to the conver- 
sion of their old farms into sheep-walks or deer-parks. 
Smyth, as a country gentleman, sees this sore, and fancies 
he may turn the discontent against the Queen. 

6. Like his neighbours, Smyth hands down from his walls 
the rusty arms, calling in Frost of Colchester to edge his 
swords and string his bows. Thomas Seymour, one of those 
weak descendants of Mary Brandon whose blood is too red 
for their sovereign's comfort, or their own, joins him in 
his freak. With an army of two mounted followers, 
Smyth and Seymour ride into the field at Colchester in 
which Sir Thomas Lucas, fiercely loyal, drills his troop. 
Eeining their steeds in front of the yeoman line, Sir 
John cries, Who will go with me? There are traitors 
round the Queen who grind the poor into bondmen ; 
who send them out of the realm ; who break the laws ; who 
weaken the country, who ruin the yeomen. These traitors 
have killed nine thousand foot in their foreign wars, and 
they will send you out of England to be slain. 

6. Examination of John Lucas and others, June 12, 1596, S. P. O. ; 
Examination of Frost, June 22, 1596, S. P. O. ; Smyth to Mannocke, June 
13, 1596, S. P. O. 



1596. 
June 12 



76 FRANCIS BACON. 

IV. 6, " Shall we go with you, Sir John ? " asks a trooper. 

" You shall go with a better man than me — than Sir 
Thomas Lucas/' shouts Smyth. " Here is a noble man of 
the blood royal, brother to Lord Beauchamp ; he shall be 
your captain. I myself shall be his assistant. Down 
with Burghley ! Who goes with me, hold up his hand." 

Not one*. No hand, no cry is raised. Treason that 
stops is lost ; and whoever is not with the traitor is against 
him. Meshed in a fearful crime, the four horsemen prick 
from the field, part in the slob, and hide themselves from 
pursuit in the sands of the sea-shore. Smyth seeks a boat 
for France ; but the summer morning dawns on him stag- 
gering, faint and hopeless on the coast ; when, crazed 
with fear, he skulks home to Baddow, where he vainly 
hopes to hide his face from the local magistrates, now 
hurrying on his track. 

June 19. 7. Sent up to London, lodged in the Tower, Smyth con- 
fesses his crime. Coke and Fleming receive orders from 
the Privy Council to call in Bacon and Waad, a clerk of 
the Council, and then to take the evidence, look up the 
law, and, if they find the offence treason, prepare articles 
of indictment against Smyth. These four commissioners 
meet, find the acts at Colchester treason, and report that 
the offence is punishable by a special statute. 

Bacon, not content, like the Attorney-General and 
Solicitor-General, with setting the law in motion to hang 
this wretched man, asks himself how a country knight, not 
wholly crazed, could ever have dreamt that, on a cry of 
" Down with sheep and deer," honest men could be 

7. Smyth to the Council, June 19, 1596, S. P. O. ; Council to Coke, 
Fleming, Waad, and Bacon, June 27, 1596, S. P. O. ; Smyth's Examina- 
tion, June 28, 1596, S. P. O. ; Abstract of Evidence against Sir John 
Smyth, July 1596, S. P. O. 



NEWS OF A GREAT VICTORY. 77 

roused to mutiny against their Queen. To a philosophic IV. 7. 
mind the reason of a thing is often of larger interest — 
than the thing itself. Is there discontent among the yeo- 1596. 
men? If so, is there cause? He makes a wide and ne 
sweeping study of this question of Pasturage versus Tillage, 
of Deer versus Men, which convinces him of the cruelty 
and peril of depopulating hamlets for the benefit of a few 
great lords. This study will produce when Parliament 
meets again a memorable debate and an extraordinary 
change of law. 

8. While Coke and Bacon wind out of Smyth's confes- July 16, 
sions the threads of his interrupted treason, comes in, wave 
on wave, the news of such a victory as only twice or thrice 
in a thousand years has stirred our English phlegm. It 
comes in first by a Dutch skipper, who puts three men on 
the Devonshire coast. The tale they tell is beyond belief : 
the city of Cadiz taken, an armada sunk, Porto Santa 
Maria wrapt in flame, the Duke of Medina Coeli driven 
from his lines, the road from San Lucar to Seville blocked 
up with the fugitive population of a great province hurrying 
for their lives. Some nine days pass when a Scotch boat 
drops into Dartmouth with the same news. A few hours 
later still the van of the victorious fleet rides into Ply- 
mouth Sound, laden with such spoil, such heaps of plate, 
gold, jewels, damasks, silks, hangings, carpets, scarfs, as 
living Englishmen have only seen in dreams. To hear 
that the fleet was safe would have been joy enough ; this 
fiery triumph of our arms, this glow of spoil and conquest, 
all but drive men mad. 



8. Carey to Cecil, July 16, 1596, S. P. O. ; Report from Cadiz, July 16, 
19, 21, 1596, S. P. O. .; Report of the Spoil taken at Cadiz, Aug. 11, 1596, 
S. P. O. 



1596. 
Sept, 



78 FBANCIS BACON. 

IV. 9. 9. Most mad of all is Essex. The glory obtained by 
Raleigh and Effingham chafes his pride ; the elevation 
of Cecil in his absence into First Secretary of State dis- 
turbs his power. If much remains to him, much is not 
enough. A warrior who has pushed through the Puerta de 
la Tierra, and seen the loveliest city in the west of Europe 
at his feet, should be suffered, he thinks, to enjoy a mono- 
poly of power and fame. Yet a senseless country shares 
the credit with his rivals, while a forgetful Queen has given 
the most active place in her government to his foe. On 
every side he is robbed of his due : getting neither his fair 
part of the spoil, nor anything like his fair part of the 
reputation. So he sulks and pouts ; prints his own account 
of the voyage ; finds fault with the generals and admirals ; 
tells the sailors of the fleet and the soldiers in the camp 
that their success would have been far more prompt, their 
prizes far more abundant, had his command of them been 
unfettered by such a council of fools and cowards. 

But Cecil's rise at home provokes him more than 
Ealeigh's success abroad. This case is a repetition of 
Bacon's case. Sir Thomas Bodley, that experienced scholar 
and diplomatist to whose wealth and taste we owe the 
princely library at Oxford, has, like Bacon, been of use to 
the Earl. Essex, who pays his debts in offices and grants, 
has pledged his word that Bodley shall be Secretary of 
State. The Queen has not kept her kinsman's pledge. 
On his return from Spain, perceiving that he was 
sent away from London to give Cecil an open field, he 
begins to sulk and storm. He will not stay at court to 
be mocked. He will bury his grief at Wanstead, or rush 

9. Lambetli MSS. 658, fol. 21 ; Censures of the Omissions in the Expedi- 
tion to Cadiz, 1596 ; Camden's Ann. Eliz., 1596 ; Bacon's Apologie, 19, 
20 ; Devereux, i. 380. 



1596. 



CECIL'S ELEVATION. 79 

away to the war, and find peace of heart on the Spanish IV. 9. 
pikes ! 

Lady Ann's quick ear and loving eye perceive the change 
that Cecil's elevation, the Earl's discomfiture, must work 
at court. Now that her sister's son, who so bitterly hates 
the Earl and so sharply resents the connexion of any of 
his own able kin with the insolent and brainless peer, has 
come to his height of power, she writes to warn Anthony 
of the evil days in store for them, now Cecil is greater than 
before, and of the need for her sons to walk with wary step. 
It is the last letter from her pen, closing, as a good woman's 
letters should do, with words of love. 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

July 10, 1596. 

Now that Sir Eobert is fully stalled in his long 
longed-for secretary's place, I pray God give him a reli- 
gious, wise, and an upright heart before God and man. I 
promise you, son, in my conjectural opinion, you had more 
need now to be more circumspect and advised in your 
troublous discoursings and doings and dealings in your 
accustomed matter, either with or for yourself or others, 
whom you heartily honour, nor without cause. He now 
hath great advantage and strength to intercept, prevent, 
and to say where he hath been or is in. Son, be it revela- 
tion or suspicion, you know what terms he standeth in 
towards yourself, and would needs have me tell you so ; 
so very vehement he was. Then you are said to be wise, 
and to my comfort I willingly think so ; but surely, son, 
on the other side, for want of some experience by action 
and your tedious unacquaintance of your own country by 
continual chamber and bed-keeping, you must need miss 
of considerate judgment in your verbal only travailing. 



1596. 



80 FRANCIS BACON. 

IV. 9. If all were scant sound before betwixt the Tiaj; X [Earl of 
Essex] and him, friends had need to walk more warily in 
his days ; for all affectionate doing he may hurt though 
pretending good. The father and son are joined in power 
and policy. The Lord ever bless you in Christ. Still I 
hearken for Yates; I doubt somebody hindereth his 
coming to me. It were small matter to come speak with 
me. You know what you have to do in regard touching 
the Spaniard. I reck not his displeasure ; God grant he 
mar not all at last with Spanish popish subtlety. Alas ! 
what I wrote touching the poor sum of five pounds to your 
brother [Francis], I meant but to let you know plainly. 
I would rather nourish than any little way weaken true 
brotherly love, as appeareth manifestly to you both. God 
forbid but that you should always love heartily, mutually, 
and kindly. God commandeth love as brethren, besides 
bond of nature. This present time I am brewing but 
for hasty and home drinking. In truth, if I should pur- 
posely make a tierce somewhat strong for you, I know not 
how to have it carried through. It were pity that you 
and I both should be disappointed. Burn, burn, in any 

wise. 

From your mother, 

A. B. 

Bacon warns the Earl against hasty speeches and 
offensive acts. Essex swears the rough way is the only 
way with Elizabeth. She may be driven, not led. " My 
lord," says Bacon, "these courses are like hot waters; 
they may help at a pang, but they will not do for daily 
use." Essex seems crazed. Bacon seeks to dissuade him 
from this lust of arms ; his proper weapon being a cham- 
berlain's stick. In happy phrase he . tells him that this 



PROPOSES TO ELIZABETH HATTON. 81 

haughty bearing to the Queen, this craving for command IV. 9 
in camps, may prove to him the two wings of Icarus — 
wings joined on with wax ; wings which may melt as he 
soars to the sun. 



1596. 
Sept. 



10. Essex cools to a man whose talk is so very much 1597. 
wiser than he wants to hear. They have no scene, June, 
no quarrel, no parting ; for there are no sympathies to 
wrench, no friendships to dissolve. Essex ceases to seek 
advice at Gray's Inn. They now rarely see each other. 
Bacon is writing his Essays, fagging at the bar, slipping 
into love ; and Essex is still happy to serve him, when he 
can do it at anybody's cost but his own. 

Francis falls into love. Lord Campbell thinks he only 
falls into debt. " He was desperately poor ; he therefore 
made a bold attempt to restore his position by matri- 
mony." This is surely in Bantam's vein. " When one 
doesn't know," asks the cockfighter, " is not it natural to 
think the worst ? " The lady that Bacon courts is rich and 
of his kin. Elizabeth Hatton, a granddaughter of his 
uncle Burghley, niece of his cousin Cecil, has been left a 
widow, young, lovely, powerful in her friends and in her 
fine estate. The mistress of Hatton House, of Corffe 
Castle, of Purbeck Isle, a woman whose lovely hand is 
celebrated in Jonson's verse — 

" Mistress of a finer table 
Hath not history or fable," — 

has, of course, crowds of adorers at her feet : among them 
men no less renowned than William Earl of Pembroke and 
Francis Bacon. The lady, or her kinsman for her, puts 
aside their suits. Cecil looks on his fair niece as a thing 

10. Essex to Sir Thomas Cecil, June 24, 1597 ; Bankes's Story of Corffe 
Castle, 34. 



82 FRANCIS BACON. 

IV. 10. to be sold for his own gain. Her youth, her beauty, her 
— great inheritance are precious in his sight, and the hus- 
lo97 - band for such a woman must be to him a strong defender 
ne ' or a useful slave. 

Essex, on the point of sailing for the Azores, writes to 
Sir Thomas and Lady Cecil, saying, if he had a sister to 
give away in marriage, he would gladly give her to his 
friend. If this y means more than the cheap generosity of 
words, it is most fortunate for Francis that Penelope and 
Dorothy, the Earl's two sisters, are already in holy bonds. 
It would have been bad enough for him to have won Lady 
Hatton ; it would have been awful to have stood in the 
Ny shoes of Northumberland or Eich. 

Oct. 22. 11. During the Earl's absence at the Azores Effingham is 
made an earl : an affront to Essex more galling than the 
rejection, on his suit, of the services of Bacon and Bodley ; 
for this creation robs him, as he thinks, of the glory of 
Cadiz fight, and permits a man whom he loathes to 
walk before him in the Queen's train and sit above him in 
the House of Peers. When he hears of this grant having 
passed the Seal, he quits his command without leave, 
hurries up to town, and, finding the thing done, insults the 
Queen, spurs to Wanstead House, defying at once the 
entreaties of the Council to return, and the advice of his 
best friends to submit. A dark and ruinous spirit now 
stands by his side. Baleigh screens him from blame in his 
great failure at the Azores ; pleading for him with the 
Queen in almost passionate terms ; but Kaleigh is the lion 
in the way of Blount, his new and most confidential friend. 
Under the lead of Sir Christopher Blount, Essex parts from 

11. Patent of the Earldom of Nottingham, Oct. 22, 1597, S. P. O. ; 
Elizabeth to Essex, Oct. 28, 1597, S. P. O. ; Raleigh to Cecil, July 20, 
1597, S. P. O. ; Cecil to Essex, July 26, 1597, S. P. O. ; Devereux, i. 467. 



1597. 
Oct. 



THE COUNTESS OF LEICESTER. 83 

his old Protestant and patriotic allies, from Bacon and IV. 11. 
Raleigh, from Cecil and Grey, turning his eyes and ears 
to the blandishments of loose women and the suggestions 
of discontented men ; to such wantons as Elizabeth South- 
well and Mary Howard, to such plotters as Robert Catesby 
and Christopher Wright. A craze is in his blood and in 
his brain. "It comes from his mother," sighs the hurt and 
angry Queen. 

12. As Lettice Knollys, as Countess of Essex, as Countess 
of Leicester, as wife of Sir Christopher Blount, this mother 
of the Earl has been a barb in Elizabeth's side for thirty 
years. Married as a girl to a noble husband, she gave 
up his honour to a seducer, and there is reason to 
fear she gave her consent to the taking of his life. 
While Devereux lived, she deceived the Queen by a 
scandalous amour, and after his death by a clandes- 
tine marriage, with the Earl of Leicester. While Dudley 
lived, she wallowed in licentious love with Christopher 
Blount, Ins groom of the horse. When her second 
husband expired in agonies at Cornbury, not a gallop 
from the place in which Amy Robsart died, she again 
mortified the Queen by a secret union with her seducer 
Blount. 

Her children riot in the same vices. Essex himself, 
with his ring of favourites, is not more profligate than his 
sister Lady Rich. In early youth Penelope Rich was 
the mistress of Sydney, whose stolen love for her is pic- 
tured in his most voluptuous verse. Sydney is Astrophel, 
Penelope Stella. Since Sydney's death she has lived in 
shameless adultery with Lord Montjoy, though her hus- 

12. Papers of Mary Queen of Scots, xvi. 7, 15, 16, 17 : Camden's Ann. 
Eliz., 632 ; Craik's Komance of the Peerage, i. 5, 338. 

' G 2 



1597. 
Oct. 



84 FRANCIS BACON. 

IV. 12. band Lord Kick is still alive. Her sister Dorothy, after 
wedding one husband secretly and against the canon, has 
now married Percy, the wizard Earl of Northumberland, 
whom she leads the life of a dog. 

Save in the Suffolk branch of the Howards, it would not 
be easy to find out of Italian story a group of women so 
detestable as the mother and sisters of the Earl. 

13. The third husband of Lady Leicester is her match 
in licentiousness, more than her match in crime. By birth 
a papist, by profession a bravo and a spy, Blount is inca- 
pable either of feeling for his wretched wife the manly love 
of Essex, or of treating her with the lordly courtesy of Lei- 
cester. Brutal and rapacious, he has married her, not for 
her bright eyes, now dim with rheum and vice, but for 
her jewels, her connexions, and her lands. He cringed to 
Leicester, that he might sell the secrets of his cabinet and 
enjoy the pleasures of his bed. With the same blank 
conscience, he wrings from the widow her ornaments 
and goods. Chain, armlet, necklace, money, land, timber, 
everything that is hers, wastes from his prodigal palm. 
He beats her servants; he thrusts his kinsfolk upon 
her ; he snatches the pearl from her neck, the bond 
from her strong box. A villain so black would have 
driven a novelist or playwright mad. lago, Overreach, 
Barabas — all the vile creatures of poetic imagination, 
are to him angels of light. What would have been any 
other man's worst vice, is Blount's sole virtue — a ruth- 
less and unreasoning constancy to his creed. Fear and 
shame are to him the idlest of idle words ; and, just as 
he would follow the commands of his general, he obeys 
the dictation of his priest. As a libertine and as a spy, his 

13. Craik's Kom. Peerage, i. 127, 208. 



1597. 
Oct. 



SIE CHKISTOPHER BLOUNT. 85 

days have been spent in dodging the assassin or in cheat- IV. 13. 
ing the rope. Waite was sent by Leicester to kill the 
villain who had defiled his bed ; Blount repaid the courtesy 
by prompting or conniving at Leicester's death. Taught 
by Cardinal Alien, deep in the Jesuit plots, he has more 
than once put his neck so near the block, that a world 
which neither loves nor understands him hugs itself in a 
belief that he must have bought his safety from arrest 
and condemnation by selling to Walsinghain or Cecil the 
blood of better and braver men. 

14. This bravo has subdued the imperious Countess of 
Leicester to his will. She has been to him an easy, if not 
an ignoble prey ; for the profligate woman dotes on her 
tyrant ; so that she who could barely stoop to the kiss of 
Devereux and Dudley, prides herself on the blessing of 
being robbed and cuffed by a wretch without grace, accom- 
plishments, or parts. When, for his private gain and the 
promotion of his faith, it serves Blount's turn to win over 
Essex the same brutal ascendency which he has esta- 
blished over Lady Leicester, he feels no pang of heart 
in turning her tenderness as a mother into the abomin- 
able instrument of his guile. His bold, coarse arts are 
soon successful with the giddy youth ; who draws closer 
and closer to his mother's husband, puts him into places 
of trust near his person, listens to his counsels, makes as- 
sociates of his male and female friends, gets him a com- 
mand in the army, and gives him a seat in the House of 
Commons. 

14. Devereux, i. 281 ; Council Beg., Mar. 16, 1G00. The frequent recur- 
rence of the Privy Council Kegister in these notes reminds me that I 
ought to express, and in the warmest manner, my many obligations to 
Henry Keeve, Esq., of the Privy Council Office. I owe to his ready and 
unvarying kindness an easy access to the sources of some of the most im- 
portant facts in this volume. 



« 



1597. 
Oct. 



86 FRANCIS BACON. 

IV. 14. Bacon and Blount propose to Essex the two courses 
most opposed to each other : Bacon the abandonment of 
his military pomp, of his opposition to the Queen, and the 
acceptance now and for ever of that great part which Lei- 
cester had filled for so many years ; Blount the pursuit of 
war and glory, so as to dazzle the multitude, overawe the 
Queen, find employments for his companions, and consoli- 
date his personal power. Bacon would make him chief of 
the Protestant nation, Blount of a discontented and disloyal 
Koman Catholic sect. One asks him to be grave, discreet, 
and self-denying. The other fires his blood with mad- 
dening and dramatic hopes. He cleaves to Blount, who 
tempts him with the things for which his restless and evil 
nature pants. He begins to toy with treason. He admits 
Boman Catholics of sullied reputation and suspected 
loyalty into his confidence. He even interferes to protect 
from justice the traitor Sir John Smyth. 

Oct. 24. 15. At the end of those four years for which Bacon 
has compelled the Government to accept of subsidies, the 
money being spent, writs for a new parliament go out. 
Bacon now stands for Ipswich, the family county town and 
the aim of his warmest ambition ; having for his colleague 
in the representation Michael Stanhope, a grand-nephew of 
Lady Ann. His kinsmen muster strong in Westminster. 
Anthony sits for Oxford, Nathaniel for Lynn; Henry 
Neville, his sister's son, for Liskeard ; Sir Edward Hoby, 
his cousin, for Rochester ; Sir Robert Cecil, also his cousin, 
for Herts. Benedict Barnham, of Cheapside, whose pretty 
little daughter, Alice, Bacon" will years hence make his 
wife, is returned for Yarmouth, having represented Mine- 

' 15. Mem. of Stages of Bills in Parliament, Oct. 1597, S. P. O. : Willis, 
Not. Pari,, iii. 137, 139, 140, 141, 142 ; D'Ewes, 549 ; Towushend, 102. 



1597. 



MOTION ON THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 87 

head in the former Parliament. Kaleigh sits for Dorset- IV. 15. 
shire ; and Christopher Yelverton, the Speaker nominate, 
for Northants. Sir Christopher Blount, by command from 
the Earl of Essex, serves for Stafford shire. In this new ' 

session the member for Ipswich sits, not, as Lord Camp- 
bell writes, a burgess prostrate, penitent, under the royal 
ban, anxious by his silence and servility to efface the 
recollection of his former speech. No voice is raised so 
often or so loud as his. Again he speaks for ample 
grants ; again he votes with the reforming squires ; again 
he wages battle of privilege against the Privy Coun- 
cil and the House of Lords. He serves on the Committee 
of Monopolies. He seconds Sir Francis Hastings' motion for 
amending the penal laws. But the great contest of this 
session, the one that makes it memorable in English his- 
tory, is fought on a bill of his own, framed on the treason 
of Sir John Smyth, and meant to arrest the decay of 
tillage, the perishing of the yeomen population from the 
English soil. 

16. Yelverton chosen Speaker, Bacon rises with a Nov. 
motion on the State of the Country. State of the Country 
means to him the relation of the people to the land. The 
population lives on the soil. Mining is in its cradle, 
though the iron ordnance of Sussex and Arden has been 
heard on the Bhine and the Theiss ; manufactures are few 
and scant, though the dyed wools of Tiverton and Dunster 
have begun to find markets on the Elbe and the Scheldt. 
To grow corn, to herd cattle, to brew ale and press cider, 
to shear sheep, to fell and carry wood, are the main occu- 
pations of every English shire. The farms are small and 

16. Summary Articles of the Bill for Maintenance of Husbandry, Oct. 
1597, S. P. O. ; D'Ewes, 550-53 ; Bacon's History of the Reign of Henry 
VH., Works, vi. 94. 



1597. 

Nov. 



88 FRANCIS BACON. 

IV. 16. many ; the farmers neither rich nor poor. The breeder of 
kine, the grower of herbs and wheat, is a yeoman bom ; not 
too proud to put hand to plough, not too pinched to keep 
horse and pike. A link between the noble and the pea- 
sant, he is of the very thew and marrow of the state ; a 
man to stand at your shoulder in the day of work or in the 
day of fight. This sturdy class is dropping the plough for 
the weaver's shuttle and the tailor's goose ; the rage for en- 
closing woods and commons, for impaling parks, for chang- 
ing arable land into pasture, for turning holdings for life 
into tenancies at will, having driven thousands of yeomen 
from fields and downs which their fathers tilled before the 
Conqueror came in. Whole districts have been cleared. 
Where homesteads smoked and harvests once waved, there 
is now, in many parts, a broad green landscape, peopled by 
a shepherd and his dog. Where the maypole sprung, and 
the village green crowed with frolic, are now a sheepwalk 
or a park of deer. 

17. The loss of this martial race, the bowmen of Cressy, 
the billmen of Boulogne, is a grievous weakness for the 
Crown ; thinning the musters for defence, swelling the ma- 
terials for mutinies and plots. Nor has this change escaped 
the Jesuits, or those who live to watch and thwart the 
Jesuits. A paper of instructions for the Eoman Catholic 
priests and gentry, On the means of recovering England 
to the Holy See, lays stress on the discontent caused by 
these enclosures of commons and village greens. Smyth 
used this argument at Colchester. The Catholic peers 
have not been slow to increase an evil which their party 

17. Discourse of the Providence necessary to be had for the setting up 
of the Catholic Faith when God shall call the Queen out of this life, Aug. 
1600, S. F. O. ; Dr. James to Burghley, May 26, 1597, S. P. O. ; Stilhnan 
to Cecil, Jan. 2, 1600, S. P. G. 



1597. 

Nov. 



INCREASE OF PASTURE. 89 

treats as a means of future good to the Church. Dr. IV. 17. 
James, the Dean of Durham, has had to warn Burghley 
of the consequences • of this waste of tillage and popu- 
lation in the two shires of Durham and Northumber- 
land ; shires in which two or three Koman Catholic earls 
own nearly all the soil. The yeomen have embraced the 
national faith, while most of the old nobility cling to the 
foreign creed ; and a fanatic like Percy or Seymour may 
often find a legal form of persecution in the pretence of 
converting his arable land into pasture, or of forming a 
new park. But if this rage for enclosure is sometimes 
abused into a means of sectarian spite, it is very far from 
being confined to the Eoman Catholic lords. From Dur- 
ham to Devon the tenants are chased from their farms 
that sheep may feed and deer disport. Ire fills and 
inflames the yeomen's veins. In every park wall they see 
a menace, in every doe the substitute of a man. They 
throw down the pales and ensnare the deer. A youth of 
Stratford-upon-Avon kills his buck in Charlcote Park. 
A crowd from Enfield scours the preserves of Hatfield 
Chace. Every spark becomes his own Eobin Hood, and 
cheap haunches of venison smoke on the tables of Cheap- 
side and Paternoster Bow. To snare deer is, in all the 
popular comedies and songs, an heroic protest, not at all a 
crime. 

18. Unlike the Jesuits and the Jesuitized peers, whose 
purpose it may be to thin the fibre and relax the power of 
England in the field, Bacon seeks to arrest this evil in its 
germ. Placed by his birth between the nobles and the 
commons, he shares neither the pride of the superior nor 

18. Discourse of Providence necessary to be had for the setting up of 
the Catholic Faith, Aug. 1600, S. P. O. 



1597. 

Nov. 



90 FRANCIS BACON. 

IV. 18. the envy of the inferior rank. His genius, too, is singu- 
larly free from taint of sect or class. He is wholly English. 
His glory is to reconcile classes through reform, to 
strengthen the Crown by justice. Concord, tolerance, loy- 
alty at home ; sway, extension, trade abroad ; these are the 
points at which he aims. Not so the Jesuits. They have 
begun to despair of aid from Spain ; after the wreck of the 
Armada, the sack of Cadiz, they fear lest England may 
be found too strong for subjection to Rome by either 
foreign guile or foreign steel. They turn their eyes, there- 
fore, to the men with sore hearts and brawny arms, and, 
taking note of the discontent among the yeomen, begin 
to count with confidence on the approaching days of civil 
war. 

19. Bacon's plan for staying the decline of population is 
to convert this new grass-land into arable, to put these 
new parks under the plough. A committee of the House 
of Commons, named to consider this plan, votes in its 
favour, when the House commissions its author to frame 
and introduce his bill. He brings in two bills : one for 
the Increase of Tillage and Husbandry ; one for the In- 
crease of People. These bills provide that no more land 
shall be cleared without special reason and a special licence. 
They provide that all land turned into pasture since the 
Queen's accession, no less a period than forty years, shall 
be taken from the deer and sheep within eighteen months, 
and restored to the yeoman and the plough. 

20. If the Commons pass these bills at once, the Peers 
receive them with amazement. Ask the Shrewsburys, 

19. Summary Articles of the Bill for Maintenance of Husbandry, Oct. 
1597, S. P. O. ; Breviate of a Bill entitled ''An Act for the Increase of 
People for the Service and Defence of the Realm,' Dec. 20, 1597, S. P. O. 

20. Lords' Jour., ii. 212, 217. 



1597. 
Nov. 



BILL FOR MAINTENANCE OF HUSBANDRY. 91 

Worcesters, and Northumberlands to dispark their chaces IV. 20 
and restore the plough ! As well ask Kegan for the hun- 
dred knights. At once they name a committee of Peers 
to oppose the two bills ; which committee calls to its aid 
the legal dexterity of Chief Justice Popham and Attorney- 
General Coke. 

21. Though the foreign enemy is at the gate and every Dec. 
true man at his post, Vere in the Low Countries, Raleigh 

and Montjoy at Plymouth, Essex still sulks and pouts at 
Wanstead. In vain the Lord Treasurer coaxes. In vain 
the Earl's friends remonstrate with him on the wickedness 
of dividing or distracting his country at such a time. In 
vain they beg him to put aside his wrongs, if he has any 
wrongs, until the danger of a fresh invasion from Spain, 
of a fresh massacre in Ireland, shall have passed away. 
The Queen declares herself hurt more by this desertion 
than by his failures when at sea. But nothing moves 
him until Bacon's patriotic bills come up before the Peers, 
when he hastens to town, and, receiving the nomination 
of Earl Marshal, takes his seat in the House of Lords. 
As he had not been named to the hostile committee, he 
begs that his name may be added to the list. 

For this committee Coke draws up thirty-one legal ob- 
jections to Bacon's bills. Thus armed to contest his logic 
and deny his law, the Peers send Black Rod down to 
request a conference with the Lower House. 

22. Aware of these hostile preparations in the other 1598. 
House, the Commons, ere entering into conference, wish Jan. 

21. Burghley to Essex, Nov. 9, 19, 30, 1597, S. P. O. ; Remonstrance 
with Essex, Nov. 16, 1597, S. P. O. ; Howard, Montjoy, and Raleigh to 
the Council, Nov. 9, 1597, S. P. O. ; Hunsdon to Essex, Nov. 1597, S. P. O. 

22. Lords' Jour., ii. 217 ; Statutes 39 Elizabethse, c. 1 and 2. 



1598. 
Jan. 



92 FKANCIS BACON. 

IY. 22. to have a copy of Coke's thirty-one legal objections to their 
bills. The Lords refuse to give it. But Bacon will not 
bend ; if the Commons are to meet objections, they 
must know what these objections are. No copy, no con- 
ference ! After much debate the Peers consent to give 
their written answer to the bills when the gentlemen of 
the Commons shall come up to confer. 

Conference now meets, the burgesses employing Bacon 
as their champion, the barons employing Coke. After 
day on day of talk, after many proposals and some amend- 
ments, Coke gives way, and the worsted Peers accept the 
Feb. two bills with some slight modifications of title and clause. 

The bills did not pass, says Lord Campbell. 

They are in the Statute Book, 39 of Elizabeth, 1 
and 2. 

Feb. 27. 23. No love for enclosures which thin her hamlets of 
their strength prevents the Queen from receiving most gra- 
ciously and rewarding most nobly this momentous service 
to her crown. Bacon knows her well. A law case having 
been referred to some of the judges and counsel, she inquires 
his mind on the course she is pursuing. " Madam," says he, 
" my mind is known : I am against all enclosures, and espe- 
cially against enclosed justice." Only two weeks after sign- 
ing her name to his bill for replacing the yeoman on the soil 
from which he has been driven, she sets her hand to the 
grant of a third estate. This act of her princely grace 
confers on Bacon the rectory and church at Cheltenham, 
together with the chapel at Charlton Kings, in the lovely 
valley nestling under Cleve and Leckhampton hills; a 
valley not yet famed for those mineral springs, those shady 
walks, those pretty spas and gardens, which in the days of 

23. Kesuscitatio. 40 ; Patent Eolls, 40 Elizabethan, Pars iii. 26, 



1598. 
Feb. 27. 



FURTHER GRANT FROM THE QUEEN. 93 

Victoria have transformed Lansdowne and Pittville into IV. 23. 
suburbs of delight ; yet rich in the voluptuous charms of 
nature, blessed with a prodigal fertility of corn and fruit, 
of kine and sheep. The rectory, the chapelry, are noble 
gifts. With them are granted all the land, houses, mea- 
dows, pastures, gardens, rents — all services — all views of 
frankpledge, courts leet, fines, heriots, mortuaries, and re- 
liefs — all tithes of fruit and grain — all profits, all royalties 
— save only the usual crown rights reserved on crown lands, 
with a fee to the Archdeacon of Gloucester, and an obliga- 
tion to support two priests and two deacons — on the pay- 
ment of a nominal rent of seventy-five pounds a year. 



94 FEAN01S BACON. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE IRISH PLOT. 



V. 1. 1. Under the eyes of Blount, Essex parts more and more 
— from the good cause and from those who love it. His 
1598. horses are not now seen in Gray's Inn Square. The 
e P ' correspondence with Anthony Bacon drops. The barges 
which float to Essex Stairs bring other company than 
the Veres and Baleighs, the Cecils, Nottinghams, and 
Greys. To sup with bold, bad men ; to listen when he 
ought to strike; to waste his manhood on the frail 
Southwells and Howards, have become the feverish 
habits of his life. Sir Charles Danvers, Sir Charles and 
Sir Jocelyn Percy, Sir William Constable, Captain John 
Lee — all discontented and disloyal Roman Catholics — 
are now his household and familiar friends. The young 
apostate Lord Monteagle sits at his board ; though merely, 
as is guessed from what comes after, in the shameful 
character of Cecil's tool and spy. But in rear of Danvers 
and Percy, Constable and Lee, wicked and dangerous as 
these men are, lurks a crowd of ruffians at whose side 
they seem respectable. Tresham is seen at Essex House. 
Catesby sits at the Earl's table. All the slums and jails 
of London stir with a new life. As a Privy Councillor, 
Essex can send into the prisons and fetch their inmates to 
his private house. Light breaks into the cells of Bride- 

1. Lodge's Illustrations, ii. 545; Devereux, i. 475; Birch's Memoirs of 
Queen Elizabeth, ii. 70 ; Vaughan to Cecil, Jan. 29, 1598, S. P. O. ; 
Vaughan to Hesketh, Jan. 29, 1598, S. P. O. ; Council Reg., Mar. 16, 
1600. 



THE IEISH PLOT. 95 

well and the Fleet. Sir John Smyth is liberated on bond : V. 1, 
Essex himself coming forward as the traitor's friend and — 
surety. Father Thomas Wright, a Jesuit agent, deep in 1598. 
the secrets, high in the confidence, of the Courts of Ronie Sept. 
and Madrid, who has been for many months in trouble, at 
first confined in Dean Goodman's house, but of late trans- 
ferred to a common jail, steals after dusk from the Bride- 
well to Essex House for secret interviews with the Earl 
and Blount. Nor is the bustle limited to the London 
taverns and the London jails. The cloughs of Lancashire, 
the ridges and heaths of Wales, send up to London the 
most restless of their recusants and priests. Vaughan, the 
Bishop of Chester, notes a mysterious change in that 
Papist district, and warns the head of the Government 
that he must look for sudden storms. The recusants of 
his diocese, he says, refuse to pay their usual fines, defy 
the clergy and magistrates, and talk of the support which 
they expect from new and powerful friends. When 
pressed too hard, instead of bowing to the laws as they 
have been wont to do, they jump to horse and spur away. 

2. The gang of Papist conspirators who now begin to 
gather into force round the Earl of Essex, propose to 
themselves not only to escape from fine and imprison- 
ment, but to dethrone the Queen, to restore the faggot 
to Smithfield and the mass to St. Paul's. They hope to 
effect this change by a military surprise and a secret 
understanding with the Pope. Essex tells the Jesuit 
Father Wright, in their midnight meetings, that he could 
become a Koman Catholic, were it not that the Koman 
Catholics have always been against him. Wright assures 

2. Examination of Thomas Wright, July 24, 1600, S. P. 0. ; Abstract of 
Evidence against the Earl of Essex [July 22, 1600], S. P. O. 



1598. 
Sept. 



96 FEANCIS BACON. 

V. 2. him that the Koman Catholics will now be his best friends. 
The plotters lay down their plans. To surprise the Queen 
they must have the command of an armed force ; Raleigh 
must be killed ; a military faction formed, an army raised, 
and the places of trust secured to the principal leaders in 
the plot. 

Oct. 3. As the Queen will trust Essex with no more regiments 

for Rouen, no more ships for Spain, he begs for a command 
against the Irish kernes. Ireland is ablaze. That Hugh 
O'Neile, son of the bastard of Dundalk, who owes to the 
policy and generosity of Queen Elizabeth his life, his edu- 
cation, his nobility, even his ascendency in his sept, has 
turned on his benefactress : laying down his earldom of 
Tyrone ; assuming the sovereign and rebellious style of 
The O'Neile ; raising the unkempt, unclothed Ulster 
savages ; and filling the valleys from Inishowen to Mona- 
ghan and Down with the tumult of war. Fires burn on the 
hill-tops. Churches are profaned, innocent homesteads 
razed. The Galloglass, mounted on his brisk marron, 
pricks through the country, spearing his enemies, driving 
off their kine. A horde of ferocious kernes, shaggy and ill- 
fed, their arms a skean and pike, their dress a blanket or a 
shirt, plunge into the houses of English gentlemen, wreaking 
such woe and shame on the Protestant settlers as pen of 
man refuses to describe. An English force keeps front to the 
rebellious horde, but the fire darts out in a hundred places. 
Connaught kindles into insurrection; Munster defies the 
Saxon ; Ulster presses on the Pale ; Spanish ships stand 
off the coast ; Spanish regiments are forming at Ghent 
and at the Groyne. A day may bring the Basques, the 

3. Irish Correspondence, 1595-98, S. P. O. ; Annals of the Four Masters, 
591-645 ; Council Keg., Oct. 29, 1595, July 19, 1598. 



TKOOPS LEVIED FOR IRELAND. 97 

Walloons, and Pandours to Kinsale. Drogheda is in danger. V. 3. 

Dublin itself is not safe. — 

1598. 

4. Shakespeare gives the English passion voice : 0°*- 

" Now for our Irish wars ! 
We must supplant these rough, rug-headed kernes, 
Which live like venom where no venom else, 
But only they, hath privilege to live ! " 

So cries the English king in that new play of Kichard 
the Second, which is now drawing crowds of citizens and 
courtiers to the Globe. Troops are being raised and fines 
imposed for this new war ; the recusants who will not 
fight for their country against their creed — such men as 
Tresham, Talbot, Eookwood, and Throckmorton — being 
mulcted in heavy rates. The force is of imposing strength. 
Two thousand veterans come home from the camp of Vere, 
their ranks filled up by a levy of youngsters from the 
loom and plough. In all, some twenty thousand horse 
and foot are on the march. 

Who shall conduct them to the coasts of Down, the 
passes of the Foyle ? 

5. Essex asserts his claim. Those who would see the 
fire of the insurrection stamped under foot propose to send 
out Kaleigh, Sydney, or Montjoy. But events at Court 
disturb the preparations against O'Neile. The great Lord 
Burghley dies, leaving vacant the Treasury and the Court 
of Wards. Essex, as usual, wants them both ; and Cecil, 



4. Shakespeare's Richard II., editions of 1597 and 1598 ; Oainden, Ann. 
Eliz., 1598 ; Chamberlain to Carleton, May 4, 17, 30, 1598, S. P. O. ; 
Council Reg., July 19, Dec. 22, 1598. 

5. Chamberlain to Carleton, May 30, Aug. 30, Nov. 8, 1598, S. P. O. ; 
Lytton to Carleton, Aug. 29, 1598, S. P. O. ; Mathews to Carleton, Sept, 
15, 1598, S. P. O. 

H 



Oct. 



98 FRANCIS BACON. 

Y. 5. who thinks that offices held by his father ought to descend 
— upon himself, becomes, as he has been before, a secret and 
_^ powerful advocate for his rival's nomination to a distant 

post. For a time the Queen will hear of no such a thing ; 

yet, as Ealeigh will not go, and Yere is in the field, Essex, 

with an underground and treacherous aid from Cecil, 

gains his suit. 

6. Cecil's beautiful young niece still wears her widow's 
weeds : a prize with which he may either bribe an enemy or 
fix a friend. She has rejected Pembroke as well as Bacon. 
To the surprise of her gay and youthful suitors, she allows 
her uncle Cecil to buy with her hand the unscrupulous arts 
and venomous tongue of Coke. A first wife, who brought 
him love and money, not yet cold in her grave, the grisly 
old bear of an Attorney-General marries this dainty and 
wilful dame. How she is persuaded to such a match no 
soul can tell. Old, grim, penurious, every way opposite to 
herself and to everything that she seems to like, he has 
neither the wit that wins nor the fame that fills a lady's ear. 
Wags whisper that she hopes to be able to break his heart. 
He, too, is rich. She has got one fortune through Sir Wil- 
liam Hatton, why not a second fortune through Sir Edward 
Coke ? Her kinsman's motives are, no one doubts, coarse. 
He has need for such an instrument as Coke : close, supple, 
learned, grinding, cold to his dependants, cringing to his 
superiors. Nor is he disappointed in the match. On 
Coke's marriage into the Cecil house, though the wife 
whom he vows to love rejects his name and destroys his 
peace, he becomes to Cecil and to Cecil's faction a brutal 
and obsequious slave. 

6. Autobiographical Notes of Coke in Harl. MSS. 6687, transcribed by 
Jolrn Bruce for the Collectanea Top, et Gen., vi. 108. 



1599. 
Mar. 8. 



PLAN FOR CALMING IRELAND, U9 

7. At a private meeting of the Privy Council held at V. 7. 
Essex House, only Cecil, Fortescue, and Buckhurst present, 
a commission for the lord-lieutenancy is drawn. Essex 
has had no speech with Bacon for eighteen months. Their 
ways now lie apart. In the conferences on his bills for 
restoring tillage and increasing population they stood 
in hostile ranks ; yet, on the eve of his fatal voyage to 
Ireland, Essex rides once more, and for the last time now, 
to Gray's Inn Square. Had he come to seek counsel, no 
man could have given him safer. More than any one alive 
— more than Chichester or Montjoy — Bacon sees through 
the Irish question. Sure that Ulster will not be calmed 
by the sword and the rope, that no dash from Cork to 
Coleraine will make a savage sept, ruled by a Brehon law, 
prefer husbandry to theft, his plan is to clear the forests, 
to drain the bogs, to lay out roads, to build ports and 
havens, to plant new towns. His hope lies in the plough, 
not in the sword. 

" We must supplant these rough, rug-headed kernes." 

He would have the great officers of the Queen's govern- 
ment and army live in the country, build in it their 
houses, as Sir Arthur Chichester, whom Cecil has sent from 
Flanders to Dublin, afterwards builds his house on the 
Lough of Belfast. But a man like the Earl of Essex, living 
only in the air of courts and the light of camps, has 
neither temper, hardihood, nor patience for such a work. 
Bacon tells him to give up an enterprise in which he can 
neither serve his country nor secure himself from shame 
and loss. Essex has not come to learn. With soul cor- 



7. Council Reg., Mar. 8, 1599 ; Bacon's Remains, 39, 48 ; Certain 
Considerations touching the Plantation in Ireland, 1606 ; Bacon's Apo- 
logie, 23 ; Essex to Cecil, Mar. 29, 1599, Add. MSS. 4160. 

H 2 



100 FRANCIS BACON. 

V. 7. rupted by disloyalty, lie turns his back on the one honest 

— voice which even yet might have saved his fortune and his 

fame from wreck. 
Mar. 

8. Father Wright consults Cresswell and Parsons, the 
experienced chiefs of the English conspiracy in Madrid 
and Eome, on these bold and perilous plots. The Jesuit 
Fathers, doubtful if it be not sin and folly to shed Catholic 
blood to raise Essex to a throne, urge him through Wright 
to adopt the Infanta's claim in preference to his own ; a 
course to which Essex, when pressed by Wright, most 
sternly demurs, as becomes a descendant of John of Gaunt. 
Philip and Clement, less deep in guile than the Jesuits, 
agree to recognise, and if need be to aid, a rebellion of 
the Earl and his partizans against the Queen, on this un- 
derstanding: that Essex, when king, shall become recon- 
ciled to the Church, shall leave Ireland to be ruled by 
O'Neile as viceroy, shall abandon the Protestant Nether- 
landers, shall yield up Kaleigh's conquests and plantations 
in America, and shall recognise the rights of Spain to an 
exclusive possession of both the Indies. It is understood 
that the Irish army is to effect this plot, of which all the 
details are to be settled with O'Neile. 

April. 9. Twenty thousand men march to the coast and cross 
the sea. Lee, Danvers, Percy have all commands in this 
force. Constable, broken for bad conduct, is restored by 
Essex to his rank. Father Wright begs hard to be taken 
with them ; but, although a Privy Councillor may fetch a 
prisoner to his house, a lord-lieutenant of Ireland has no 

8. Abstract of the Evidence against Essex [July 22, 1600], S. P. O. ; 
Examination of Wright, July 24, 1600, S. P. O. 

9. Council Reg., Mar. 11, April 2, 1599 ; Essex to Cecil, Add. MSS. 
4160 ; Abstract of Evidence against Essex, July 22, 1600, S. P. O. 



1599. 
April. 



ESSEX LORD-DEPUTY. 101 

power to empty the London jails. All that he can do for V. 9 
Wright is to get him removed from Bridewell to the 
Clink. 

From the hour of his quitting Whitehall Essex assumes 
the powers of a sovereign prince. On his way to the 
coast he sends back Lord Montjoy. Montjoy is his friend ; 
the yet nearer friend of his sister Lady Eich. For love of 
her, Montjoy has joined in opposition to Ealeigh on the 
right hand, to Cecil on the left ; but neither friendship for 
Essex, nor love for Lady Eich, would draw a man so firm 
in faith, so loyal to the Crown, to league with a gang 
of Papists against the Queen. Essex sends him back. 

From Drayton Bassett, where Blount and Lady Leicester 
live, Essex has the effrontery to write for leave to appoint 
Blount his Marshal of the Camp. A marshal of the camp 
is the second in command, the first in activity and influence ; 
to put such a fellow as Blount in such a place, the Queen 
indignantly demurs. There is Sir Henry Brounker, an 
officer of talent and experience : let him be our marshal. 
Essex pouts and sulks : " If she grant me not this favour," 
he writes to Cecil, "I am maimed of my right arm." 
Cecil takes care he shall have his way. 

10. When he lands in Dublin he casts to the four winds May. 
his commission and instructions. One of his first and 
most insolent acts is to appoint the young Earl of South- 
ampton his Master of the Horse. This friend and patron 
of Shakespeare is not a Papist, not an ally of Blount. 
He is a patriot, though not a wise one; a Protestant, 
though not a zealous one. Heady, amorous, quarrelsome, 

10. Cecil to Southampton, Sept. 3, 1598, S. P. O. ; Council to Essex, 
June 10, 1599, S. P. O. ; Elizabeth to Essex, July 19, 1599, S. P. O. ; 
Devereux, i. 474. 



1599. 



102 FRANCIS BACON. 

V. 10. swift to go right or wrong as his passions tempt him, he 
has vexed and grieved the Qneen by falling madly and 
licentiously in love with Mistress Vernon, one of her beau- 
±day. t ^ maids of honour, and filling her court with the fame 
of his amours. In this offence against modesty he has 
been abetted by the young lady's first cousin Lord Essex, 
himself too frail as regards the passions, and too familiar 
with his mother's vices and his sister's infidelities to feel 
the shame brought on his kin by a scandal which after all 
may end in marriage. Sent away from London, South- 
ampton had returned in secret, and had married the lady 
without her sovereign's knowledge. For these offences he 
had been ordered into free custody. Breaking his gage of 
honour, he has stolen away to Dublin, where the Earl, 
in place of sending back the Queen's fugitive, gives him 
the welcome which a prince at war might give to a 
deserting general from the hostile camp. 

Aug. 11. Every one knows the issue of this Irish campaign : 

a lost summer, a corrupted army, a traitorous truce. In- 
stead of smiting O'Neile, Lee arranges an interview on the 
Lagan, at which the English and Irish rebels discuss their 
terms and enter into league. Blount hails his fellows in 
the Celtic camp. Like the Irish traitors, he abhors the 
Protestant Queen, not only as the most powerful enemy of 
their church, but as an insolent sovereign who has spared 
their lives. They propose to carry out the Papal scheme, 
giving England to Essex, Ireland to O'Neile. The Des- 
monds and Fitzmaurices, not less than the O'Donnels and 
O'Kanes, are privy to a league in wMch the Celts drive 
a bargain with their allies ; for while the Boman Catholics 

11. Annals of the Four Masters, 646-654; Blount's Confessions, State 
Trials, i. 1415. 



ESSEX RETURNS TO ENGLAND. 103 

are to get the whole of Ireland to themselves, they claim V. 11. 
immunities in England equal to those of the rival creed. — 
They are to enjoy on the Thames, not alone freedom of ' 

conscience, but street processions of the host and public 
performance of the mass. 

12. Essex breaks up his camp at Drogheda ; hurries to Sept. 
Dublin, Blount at his side, Danvers, Constable, Lee at his 
heels; crosses the sea, leaving Ireland without an army 
or a government; the English settlers aghast at this 
desertion, the Ulster rebels elate with joy. At Milford 
Haven they receive intelligence which breaks down all 
their plans. The country rings with arms. While they 
have been conspiring with O'Neile, the Privy Council, 
under guise of preparing to repel an expected landing of 
the Spaniards, have drawn out the musters, set the train- 
bands in motion, filled the city with chosen troops. Wags 
have mocked and jested over this invisible Armada ; but 
Essex lands at Milford Haven to find his road to London 
barred by a truly formidable force. Nottingham covers 
the capital with a camp of six thousand horse and foot. 
Twenty-five thousand men answer to the roll in Kent and 
Essex. Under such a change of affairs, even Blount 
dissuades a march on London. The road is long ; halber- 
diers cannot fly, like Imogen, on the wings of love ; and 
the very maddest of the plotters knows that the Protestant 
gentlemen of Gloucester, Wilts, and Berks will not stare 
idly on wnile gangs of mutinous troopers, led by Papist 
captains, march past to dethrone their Queen. With the 
whole army of Drogheda at their backs, they could not 

12. Annals of the Four Masters, 655 ; Blount's Confessions, State 
Trials, i. 1415 ; Bacon's Notes to Camden, Works, vi. 359 ; Memorandum 
of Precautionary Measures, Aug. 1599, S. P. O. ; List of Army in Kent 
and Essex, Aug. 1599, S. P. O. 



1599. 



104 FRANCIS BACON. 

V. 12. force their way through six or eight warlike shires. Better, 
says Blount, prick on alone. A chance remains that by 
dash and swiftness Essex may surprise the Queen, put his 
friends in power, and return to Dublin to mature his plans. 

Sept. 28. To horse, to horse ! No pause in the ride till he flings 
himself, splashed and faint, at his sovereign's feet. 

Oct. 13. Lee, Danvers, Constable, Davis, spur into London. 

News-writers stare at the swarms of captains and com- 
manders from the Irish camp which suddenly hustle 
through the taverns of Paternoster Eow and fill the pit of 
the theatre, where Butland and Southampton are daily 
seen, and where Shakespeare's company, in the great 
play of Eichard II., have for more than a year been 
feeding the public eye with pictures of the deposition of 
kings. But the plotters have met their mates. The 
Earl is in charge. From the presence of his Queen he 
has passed into custody ; when a solemn act of the Privy 
Council having declared him unfit to discharge the duties 
of Earl Marshal, Privy Councillor, and Master of the Ord- 
1600. nance, a writ from the Star-Chamber cites him to answer 
Feb. f° r hi s suspicious dealings with O'JSTeile. This citation he 
disobeys. After a brief confinement in the house of Lord 
Keeper Egerton, he is placed in permanent free custody 
in his own great mansion in the Strand. 

14. The Council hastens to repair the evil done in 
Dublin. Montjoy goes over as Lord Deputy. Stern letters 

13. Rowland White, Oct. 3, 11, 1599, in Sydney Papers, ii. 130, 132 ; 
Devereux' Lives of the Earls of Essex, ii. 76-117 ; Speeches in the Star 
Chamber on Essex's Expedition to Ireland, Nov. 1599, S. P. O. : Essex to 
Eliz., Feb. 11, 22, 1600, S. P. O. 

14. Wood's Confessions, Jan. 20, 1599-1600, S. P. O. ; Council Peg., 
Feb. 2, 1600. 



1600. 
Feb. 



ESSEX IN CUSTODY. 105 

recal the Lords Justices and magistrates of Ireland to V. 14. 
their duty. Threads of the great conspiracy soon 
appear. Among the witnesses agaiust Essex, Thomas 
Wood, a nephew of Lord Fitzmaurice, makes this de- 
claration : 

He saith that, happening to be with the Lord Fitz- 
maurice, Baron of Lixnaw, at his house of Lixnaw, between 
Michaelmas and Allhallowtide, the said Baron walking 
abroad with the said Wood asked him what force the Earl 
of Essex was of in England. He answered he could not 
tell, but said he was well beloved of the commonalty. 
Then said the Baron that the Earl was gone for England, 
and had discharged many of the companies of Ireland ; 
and that if her Majesty were dead he should be King of 
England and O'Neile to be Viceroy of Ireland ; and 
whensoever he should have occasion and could send for 
them, he would send him eight thousand men out of 
Ireland. The said Wood asked the Baron how he knew 
that, and he answered that the Earl of Desmond sent him 
word so. 

Thomas Wood. 

This statement, wholly in the handwriting of Wood, re- 
mains in the State Paper Office. 
Below it Cecil has written : 

This confession and declaration was made before us 
whose names are underwritten this 20th of January, 1599 
(1600) ; and after being charged of us severally and jointly 
to declare nothing but truth upon his soul and conscience, 
as he would answer it at the latter day, he hath both pro- 
tested this to be true that he hath written, and that he is 
a Christian and would not say an untruth in this kind for 



106 FRANCIS BACON. 

V. 14. all the good in the world ; and for proof thereof hath again 

— set his hand in our presence. 

1600. Thomas Wood. 

Feb. T. Buckhukst. 

Nottingham. 

Kobeet Cecil. 

j. foetescue. 

Mar. 15. The world parts suddenly from the fallen man. Those 

who know or suspect the depth of his guilt shun him as one 
who is lost past hope ; those who see no more than his 
disgrace fall off from a losing cause. Cecil spurns his 
advances ; when the old Countess of Leicester begs 
of him to save her son, Cecil answers her that his 
fate is with a higher power. Babington, Bishop of 
Worcester, glances at him cautiously in a Court ser- 
mon ; but when sent for by the angry Queen he 
denies that he pointed to the Earl. Save his cousin 
Lady Scrope, and his sisters Lady Bich and the Countess 
of Northumberland, not one of his confederates or com- 
panions dares to speak for him a word. Blount slinks 
with his wife to Drayton Bassett. Southampton goes 
abroad to fight Lord Gray, breaking his parole for the 
second time; an offence for which the council, though 
loth to strike the amiable and misled young gentleman, 
strips him of his company of horse. Lee makes no sign. 
Danvers and Constable hide their heads. These Bobadils 
of Drogheda and Milford skulk about the kens of New- 
gate Street and Carter Lane ; and only a group of women, 
kin to the Queen, who gloom about the court in black, 
find courage for even tears and weeds. 

15. Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 22, Mar. 5, 1600, S. P. O. ; Cecil to 
Countess of Leicester, Mar. 21, 1600, S. P. O. ; Sydney Papers, ii. 132, 213 ; 
Council Keg., Aug. 3, 17, 1600. 



INTERCEDES FOR ESSEX. 107 

Yea ; there is one. In this dead silence of despair, one V. 15 
voice alone dares to breath the Earl's name, to whisper in 
the royal ear excuses for his fault, to plead with that leonine 
heart for the mercy which becomes a monarch better than 
his crown. 



1600. 
Mar. 



16. Any man save Francis Bacon would have left the April. 
Earl to his fate. The connexion has been to him waste of 
character and waste of time. The hope of making Essex 

chief of the national party has come to nought and their 
intercourse has ceased. To Bacon, and to all his kin, the 
Earl has brought anxiety, grief, and shame. The loss of 
rank and power is the least part of his loss ; that loving 
and beloved brother, to whom the Essays are so tenderly 
inscribed, has now sunk past hope, the victim of his com- 
panion's riot and evil ways. Despite the warnings of the 
Saint of God, though Anthony and Essex had both pro- 
mised her to amend their ways, they have run from bad to 
worse, until one is about to sink into political crime, the 
other into a premature grave. 

17. The prospects, the affections of Bacon and Essex now June, 
lie apart, distant as the temperate and the torrid zones. 

For two whole years they have met but once ; to part less 
near in opinions than before. All that Bacon foresaw 
from the Irish expedition has come to pass. The voyage 
has failed. More than the visible failure Bacon does not 
know ; nothing of the interviews with Wright ; nothing of 
the understanding with the Jesuits ; nothing of the Pope's 
approval ; nothing of the compact with O'Neile. Cecil 
keeps these formidable secrets close, sharing them, if with 

16. Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon, various dates, in Lambeth MSS. 
649, 650 ; Devereux, i. 406. 

17. Council to Yelverton, Coke, Fleming, and Bacon, Nov. 9, 1600, 
S. P. O. ; Council Reg., Feb. 2, 28, July 6, Sept. 29, Dec. 24, 1600. 



1600. 
June. 



108 FEANCIS BACON. 

V. 17. any one, only with his creature and dependant Coke. In 
other business of the Crown, in admiralty affairs, revenue 
affairs, in debts, in grants, and fines, above all in arbitra- 
tions, Bacon is now constantly employed by the Crown. 
Instructions from the Privy Council run to Yelverton, 
Coke, Fleming, and Bacon. In cases of dispute, as in 
those of Blundel, of Perrim, of Trachey, he is often em- 
ployed alone. But in taking the confessions, in confront- 
ing the spies and prisoners of the Irish plot, he has no 
share. Yet, knowing no more of it than all men know, 
why should he risk his future to save a man who has 
covered him with misfortunes, who has sought his advice 
to cast it in his teeth ? 

18. Bacon is not the man to ask. Seeing the Earl crushed 
without being charged, supposing him free from crime, he 
carries his plea of clemency to the throne. Often in the 
Queen's closet on public duty, he seizes every opening for 
this plea. Never had such an offender such an advocate. 
Gaily, gravely, in speech, in song, he besets the royal ear. 
He kneels to her Majesty at Nonesuch ; he coaxes her at 
Twickenham Park. When she ferries to his lodge, he 
presents her with a sonnet on mercy ; when she calls him 
to the palace, he reads to her letters purporting to come 
from the penitent Earl. What Babington dares not hint 
from the pulpit, Bacon dares to urge in the private 
chamber. Wit, eloquence, persuasion of the rarest power, 
he lavishes on this ungrateful cause. At times the Queen 
seems shaken in her mood ; but she knows her kinsman 
better than his advocate knows him. Spain still threatens 
a descent ; and Ireland rocks with the tumult of civil war. 

18. Abstract of Evidence against Essex, July 22, 1600, S. P. O. ; 
Shakespeare's Kicharci II., editions of 1598 and 1608. 



1600. 
June. 



SHAKESPEAEE'S 'KICHAKD THE SECOND.' 109 

Those scenes of Shakespeare's play disturb her dreams. V. 18 
This play has had a long and splendid run, not less from 
its glorious agony of dramatic passion than from the open 
countenance lent to it by the Earl, who, before his 
voyage, was a constant auditor at the Globe, and by his 
noble companions Kutland and Southampton. The great 
parliamentary scene, the deposition of Eichard, not in the 
printed book, was probably not in the early play ; yet the 
representation of a royal murder and a successful usurpation 
on the public stage is an event to be applied by the ground- 
lings in a pernicious and disloyal sense. Tongues whisper 
to the Queen that this play is part of a great plot, to teach 
her subjects how to murder kings. They tell her she is 
Eichard ; Essex, Bolingbroke. These warnings sink into her 
soul. When Lambard, Keeper of the Eecords, waits upon 
her at the palace, she exclaims to him, " I am Eichard, 
know you not that ? " 

19. Nor does the play by Shakespeare stand alone. One 
of the Earl's friends publishes on this story of the deposi- 
tion of Eichard a singular and mendacious tract, which, 
under ancient names and dates, gives a false and disloyal 
account of things and persons in his own age : the childless 
sovereign ; the association of defence ; the heavy burthen 
of taxation ; the levy of double subsidies ; the prosecution 
of an Irish war, ending in general discontent ; the out- 
break of blood ; the solemn deposition and final murder of 
the princeo The book has no name on the title-page — 
that of John Hayward signs the dedication. Bolingbroke 
is made the hero of the tale ; and that even the grossly 

19. Hayward's First Part of the Life of Henry IV., 1599 ; Papers con- 
cerning the History of Henry IV., the Letter Apologetical written by 
Dr. Hayward, 1599, S. P. O. 



110 FKANCIS BACON. 

Y. 19. stupid may not miss its meaning, this lump of sedition is 

dedicated to the Earl. In one place it openly affirms the 
i Ann 

existence of a title to the throne superior to that of the 
June, r, , 

Queen ! 

20. This proves too much for Elizabeth. Packing the 
scribe in jail, she sends for Bacon to draw up articles 
against him. 

Had she sent for Coke ! 

To Bacon's tenderness of human life the poor scribbler, 
Hayward, owes his subsequent length of days and author- 
ship of other books. " There is treason in it," says the 
Queen ; as indeed there is. " Treason, your Grace ? " 
replies Bacon ; " not treason, Madam, but felony, much 
felony." " Ha ! " gasps her Highness, willing to hang a 
rogue for one crime as for another : " Eelony — where ? " 
" Where, Madam ? Everywhere : the whole book is a 
theft from Cornelius Tacitus." A light of laughter breaks 
the cloud. "But," says her darkening Highness, "Hay- 
ward is a fool ; some one else has writ the book ; make 
him confess it ; put him to the rack." 

" Nay, Madam," pleads the advocate of mercy ; " rack 
not his body — rack his style. Give him paper and pens, 
with help of books ; bid him carry on his tale. By com- 
paring the two parts, I will tell you if he be the true 
man." 

July. 21. Aware how strong are Bacon's views on political 

crime, some of the conspirators, conscious of their own 
guilty thoughts, dread lest in these frequent passages with 
the Queen he may be taking part against their lord. Fear 

20. Bacon's Apologie, 36 ; Bacon's Eemains, 42 ; Matters wherewith 
Dr. Hayward was charged, and Dr. Hayward's Confession, 1599, S. P. O. 

21. Bacon's Apologie, 47 ; Birch, 459 ; Montagu, xii. 168. 



IMPEOVEMENT IN ESSEX'S AFFAIES. Ill 

gives suspicion wing. Among themselves they whisper y. 21. 
that in the royal presence he has pronounced the offence — 
treason. The true offence is treason; but Bacon has not 1600. 
called it such, for he has no knowledge of its darker facts. 1' 

He therefore meets and spurns the misrepresentation of 
his words. In a note to Lord Henry Howard, one of the 
Koman Catholic friends of Essex, he writes with honest 
heat : " I thank God my wit serveth me not to deliver any 
opinion to the Queen which my stomach serveth me not 
to maintain ; one and the same conscience guiding and 
fortifying me. The untruth of this fable God and my 
sovereign can witness, and there I leave it. . . . For 
my Lord of Essex, I am not servile to him, having regard 
to my superior duty. I have been much bound unto him ; 
on the other side, I have spent more time and more thoughts 
about his welldoing than ever I did about mine own. I 
pray God you his friends amongst you be in the right." 

22. Affairs grow brighter for the Earl. Good news 
come in from Dublin and the Hague ; news that Desmond 
has been taken, and Wexford pacified by Montjoy ; that 
Vere and Nassau have fought a battle and gained a victory 
on Nieuport sands. The Queen's heart opens. When the 
Earl now begs for freedom, she more than ever inclines to 
hear his prayer. Cecil gets alarmed ; putting Wright and 
Hayward under stern examination, he frames from their 
confessions an indictment against Essex, which, if half of 
it were proved, would assuredly send him to the block. 
But an advocate, stronger than, Cecil, stands beside the 
Queen ; who, in season, as well as out of season, in the 

22. Essex to Eliz., June 21, 1600, S. P. O. ; Chamberlain to Carleton, 
July 1, 26, 1600, S. P. O. ; Confession of D. Hayward, July 11, 1600, 
S. P. O. ; Abstract of Evidence against Essex, July 22, 1600 ; Examina- 
tion of Thomas Wright, July 24, 1600, S. P. O. ; Bacon's Apologie, 41, 57. 



112 FKANCIS BACON. 

V. 22. midst of a dispute on law, in the turn of an anecdote, in a 
— casual laugh or sigh, searches and finds a way to her heart. 
One day she asks Mm about his brother's gout. Anthony's 
u ^' gout is sometimes better, sometimes worse. " I tell you 
how it is, Bacon," says her sagacious Majesty ; " these 
physicians give you the same physic to draw and to cure ; 
so they first do you good, and then do you harm." " Good 
God, madam!" cries Bacon, "how wisely you speak of 
physic to the body ! consider of physic to the mind. In 
the case of my Lord of Essex, your princely word is, that 
you mean to reform his mind, not to ruin his fortune. 
Have you not drawn the humour ? Is it not time to apply 
the cure?" Another day she tells him the Earl has 
written to her most dutifully, that she felt moved by his 
protestations ; but that, when she came to the end, it was 
all to procure from her a patent of sweet wines ! " How 
your Majesty construes ! " says Bacon ; " as if duty and 
desire could not stand together ! Iron clings to the load- 
stone from its nature. A vine creeps to the pole that it 
may twine." " Speak to your business," says the Queen ; 
"speak for yourself: for the Earl not a word." 

Yet drop by drop the daily oil softens her heart. At length 
the Earl is set at large ; though as one to whom much has 
been pardoned ; one who shall never again command armies, 
or even approach the Court. Elizabeth will see her kins- 
man's face no more. Shall he go back to the Irish camp ? 
" When I send Essex back into Ireland," says the Queen, 
" I will marry you — you, Mr. Bacon. Claim it of me." 



PARTISANS OF ESSEX. 113 



CHAPTEE VI. 



THE STREET FIGHT. 



1600. 
Oct. 



1. When free to plot, Essex, in the secresy of his own VI. 1 
house, and in open breach of loyalty and honour, renews the 
intrigue with Rome. Blount returns from Drayton Bassett 
to crowd Barns Elms and Essex House, the Earl's head- 
quarters in and near London, with the most desperate of 
his Papist gangs. Mad at their loss of time, they pro- 
pose to do without an army what they failed to do with 
one. Enough, they say, to raise a troop, to kill Baleigh 
and Nottingham, to seize the Queen by force, and summon 
a parliament of their own. Essex shall be swept to the 
throne by a street fight and an act of assassination. Yet, 
if they still pretend to believe him more popular than 
Elizabeth, they dare not trust his chances and their own 
safety to an English crowd. Seeking to gain strength 
elsewhere, they open a deceptive intercourse with James, 
incite O'Neile to resist by promises of speedy help, raise 
a band of their sturdy partisans in Wales. One English- 
man holding office, Sheriff Smith, of London, probably a 
Roman Catholic, alone listens to their schemes. The 
Earls of Rutland and Southampton sit at the board ; Rut- 
land bound, like Southampton, by a pair of bright eyes to 
follow the Earl's fortunes, being deeply in love with Eliza- 
beth Sydney, daughter of Lady Essex by her first husband 
Sir Philip ; neither of them sharing his insane ambition 

1. Nottingham to Montjoy, Goodman, ii. 14 ; Jardine's Criminal 
Trials, i. 342 ; Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 10, 1600, S. P. O. 



1600. 
Oct. 



114 FKANCIS BACON. 

VI. 1. or suspecting his murderous thoughts. The partners of 
his secret soul are those Papists, old and new, who have 
been and will be the terror and shame of England for 
twenty years. Blount and Danvers, Davis, Percy, and 
Monteagle are not the worst. Prom kens like the Hart's 
Horn and the Shipwreck Tavern, haunts of the vilest 
refuse of a great city, the spawn of hells and stews, the 
vomit of Italian cloisters and Belgian camps, Blount, long 
familiar with the agents of disorder, unkennels, in the 
Earl's name, a pack of needy ruffians eager for any 
service which seems to promise pay to their greed or 
licence to their lust. 

2. These miscreants are wholly Papists. Four of the 
five monsters who, some years later, dig the mine in 
Vineyard House, Robert Catesby, John Wright, Christopher 
Wright, and Thomas Winter, answer to this call of Blount ; 
while the fifth, Thomas Percy, is with them in the per- 
sons of his more reputable kinsmen Jocelyn and Charles. 
Nearly all their most guilty associates of the Powder Plot, 
Throckmorton, Lyttleton, and Grant, join with them ; as 
also Ogle, Baynham, Whitelocke, and Downhall, the dregs 
and waste of a dozen Roman Catholic plots. 

3. They mean to kill the Queen — a palace murder if 
she resist them, a Pomfret murder if she yield. Raleigh 
and Cecil are to share the fate of Bushy and Green. Is 
Essex more squeamish than Bolingbroke ? Is Blount less 
bold than Piers of Exton ? Though they advance towards 
their goal under cover of a design to free the Queen from 
enemies who hold her in thrall, the confession of Blount 

2. List of Prisoners I in the Compter and the Poultry, Feb. 8, 1601, 
S. P. O. ; Lodge, ii. 545. 

3. State Trials, i. 1415. 



Oct. 



VALENTINE THOMAS'S CONFESSION. 115 

on the scaffold removes all doubt of a deliberate plan to VI. 3. 
assassinate her if she stand in their way. " I know and — 
must confess," said the impenitent ruffian, "if we had ^ 
failed in our end, we should even have drawn blood from 
herself." Nor is this design of dethronement and assas- 
sination a last resource of men at bay. The plan was 
formed two years before. It lay at the door of all Father 
Wright's suggestions, inspired the publication of Hay- 
ward's tract, controlled the understanding with O'Neile, 
gave colour to the correspondence with King James. 

4. At the moment when this faction had been struggling 
to secure the Irish command, Bacon had been engaged 
with Coke and others in probing a mysterious crime. A 
Scot of many names and characters — Thomas Anderson, 
Thomas Alderson, Valentine Thomas, a servant, a soldier, 
a gentleman — giving no good account of his journey to 
London, had been brought into the Tower. Bread and 
water, Bacon and Coke, had brought him to his knees. 
He confessed that he had been employed by the King of 
Scots to kill the Lord Treasurer Burghley and her 
Majesty the Queen. Here is the confession, solemnly 
attested : 

Collection of the Principal Points in Valentine Thomas's 
Confession concerning the Practice against Her Majesty's 
Person. Subscribed by himself the 20th of December, 

1598. 

Valentine Thomas, otherwise called Thomas Alderson or 
Anderson, confesseth that his access to the King of Scotts 
was principally procured by one John Stewart of the 

4. Scottish Papers of Elizabeth, lxii. 28, 46, 50, 52, 54 ; lxiii. 13, 15, 22, 
29, 31, 45. 

i 2 



1600. 



116 FRANCIS BACON. 

VI. 4. Buttery, who keepeth the King's door, and that he re- 
paired to the King at sundry times and in sundry places ; 
and amongst divers speeches of many things concerning 
the state of England and her Majesty's person, the King 
fell one day into some speech of the Lord Treasurer, 
whom he wished Valentine Thomas to kill, as having ever 
been his enemy about the Queen, which fact when Valen- 
tine undertook to execute, after some speeches how it 
might best be done, the King further replied, " Nay, I 
must have you do another thing for me, and all is one ; 
for it is all but blood. You shall take an occasion to 
deliver a petition to the Queen in manner as you shall 
think good, and so may you come near to stab her." And 
Valentine told the King that it was a dangerous piece of 
work, but he would do it, so the King would reward him 
thereafter, and the King said, "You shall have enough." 
And after this, Valentine took his leave of the King, and 
said he was to go to Glasgow for a time to his kinsman's 
wedding : and the King said " Go, as you say, to Glasgow, 
and then come again, when you hear that Sorleboy is 
come." And so he left the King, and the Laird Arkin- 
glasse came to the King. 

[Signed] Valentyne Thomas. 

[Attested by] John Peyton. 
Edw. Coke. 
Tho. Flemyng. 
Fe. Bacon. 
Wm. VVakd. 

The Government has kept this story secret. The 
Queen, indeed, professes to believe it false, and she is 
wise to do so. James stands beyond her reach ; her courts 
cannot punish him; after her death he must be King. 



1600. 



ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE RALEIGH. 117 

To prove him an assassin is to make of him, and of all who VI. 4. 
support his claims, the most ruthless of her foes. James, 
knowing of Thomas's arrest, is anxious to be spared the 
disgrace of a public trial ; yet the knowledge that such a 
crime has been contemplated helps to nerve the hand 
of every one who loves his Queen — the visible embodiment 
of English virtue and English strength. 

5. If only the Papists share the heart of Blount, still, 1601. 
where he fancies that either private love or lust of spoil Jan- 
will tempt a man to arm, he throws his line. From 
Lancashire, from Norfolk, and from Devon, friends of the 
conspirators prick to town. Among them comes Sir Fer- 
dinando Gorges, governor of Plymouth, a brave and loyal 
gentleman akin to Sir Walter Kaleigh, who, seeing him 
drawn into a dangerous plot, sends to warn him. Blount, 

now ready for the blow that is to make him father-in-law 
to a king, persuades Gorges to invite the Captain of the 
Queen's Guard to come and speak with him at Essex 
House. Kaleigh jumps into his barge. At Essex-stairs 
the plotters beg him to land ; but finding the fox too wise 
to trust his life in such hands, Blount, throwing off the 
mask, sends an armed boat in chase of him, which, failing 
to catch its prey, fires four pieces into his barge. 

6. The blood of the conspirators mounts with this Feb. 6. 
attempt at assassination. On Sunday they will rise : 

the pretext to be spread through the streets and lanes 
being that Ealeigh has formed a plot to murder the 
Earl. The parts in the play are all given out. While 

5. Declaration of the Practice of trie Earl of Essex, 1601 ; Gorges' 
Answer to certain Imputations, quoted in Cayley, i. 337 ; State Trials, i, 
1424. 

6. Jardine's Criminal Trials, i. 320. 



1601. 
Feb. 



118 FKANC1S BACON. 

VI. 6. Smith secures the city in their rear, a force will march 
from Essex House and seize the avenues of Whitehall. 
Blount is to keep the palace-gates, Davis the hall, Danvers 
the entrance of the presence-chamber, while Essex him- 
self, pushing into the royal closet, is to force the aged 
Queen, sword in hand, to yield. 

7. To fan the courage of their crew, and prepare the 
citizens for news of a royal deposition, the chiefs of the 
insurrection think good to revive for a night their 
favourite play. They send for Augustine Phillips, man- 
ager of the Blackfriars theatre, to Essex House. Mont- 
eagle, Percy, and two or three more — among them Cuffe 
and Meyrick, gentlemen whose names and faces he does 
not recognise — receive him ; and Lord Monteagle, speak- 
ing for the rest, tells him they want to have played the 
next day Shakespeare's deposition of Bichard the Second. 
Phillips objects that the play is stale, that a new one is 
running, and that the company will lose money by a 
change. Monteagle meets his objections. The theatre 
shall not lose ; a host of gentlemen from Essex House will 
fill the galleries ; if there is fear of loss, here are forty 
shillings to make it up. 
Feb. 7. Phillips takes the money ; and King Bichard is duly 
deposed for them and put to death. 

Feb. 8. 8. ISText morning, after the play, when the conspira- 
tors are about to rise, Egerton, Popham, and Knollys 
knock at the gates of Essex House. This visit of the 
Lord Keeper, the Lord Chief Justice, and the Queen's 
Chamberlain, disconcerts their plans. They meant to 

7. Examination of Augustine Phillips, Feb. 18, 1601, S. P. O. This 
examination lias been printed by Mr. Collier, but with an error in the 
names. 

8. Council Reg., Feb. 14, 1601 ; State Trials, i. 1333-1409, 



1601. 
Feb. 8. 



ENDEAVOUR TO RAISE THE CITY. 119 

begin by a street tumult and a march on Whitehall, VI. 8 
under cover of a design to punish Ealeigh and restore 
the Queen to her freedom of choice. The arrival of 
these great officers of State compels them either to lay 
down their arms and submit to the law, or to rush into the 
city, raising the cry of war against the Queen. Mad as 
the action seems, they choose to strike. Putting the 
Ministers under guard, the Papist rabble, Blount, Catesby, 
Tresham, Danvers, Davis, Wright, Grant, Lyttleton, 
Baynham, and their fellows, tear past Temple-bar, yelling 
to the astonished citizens to arm and follow the young 
Earl. 

9. The Queen sits in her palace superbly calm. Baleigh 
himself has scarcely her nerve of steel. Told at dinner 
that her faithless kinsman is in arms against her, she eats 
her meal, no more disturbed than by a tumult on the 
stage. When, some minutes later, comes in news that 
London has risen for the Earl, she proudly puts aside the 
lie : " He who placed me in this seat will preserve me 
in it." 

10. Essex is no more Bolingbroke than Elizabeth Bichard. 
It is Sunday morning, and the people crowd the streets ; 
some making holiday, more on their way to church. Yet, 
though the Earl rides past them, not a man from Temple 
Bar to Cheap arms to follow this descendant of John of 
Gaunt. As the Papists wheel into the city, the inhabitants 
shut their gates. Halberds and lances soon gleam out 
from city doors ; not to guard the Earl, but to defend reli- 
gion and the Queen ; so that, when the baffled insurgents, 

9. Birch, ii. 468 ; Jardine's Criminal Trials, i. 309. 

10. Lodge's illustrations, ii. 545 ; List of Prisoners in the Poultry and 
the Compter, Feb. 8, 1601, S. P. O. ; Council Reg., Feb. 14, 1601. 



1601. 
Felb. 8 



120 FBANCIS BACON. 

VI. 10. pressed from the upper lanes about Guildhall, beat a re- 
treat towards St. Paul's, they find the gorge of Ludgate 
and the long line of approaches to Essex House blocked 
up with pikes. Deceived in the promises of Smith, the 
despairing band fall back on Ludgate Hill, where Levison, 
with a party of soldiers, guards the pass. Blount sounds 
a charge. Some fall, some turn, some cut their way 
through. Seeing his old adversary Waite in the ranks 
before him, Blount rushes upon him, and, though faint 
with wounds, chops the assassin down. It is the last pang 
of joy before he yields. 

The game is now up. All London is against them in 
an hour, as England will be in a week. The gangs dis- 
perse. Some crawl into alehouse- vaults ; some leap into 
boats, and drop with the tide ; but every honest man's hand 
is against them, and at sundown most of the leaders are 
safe in jail. In less than forty-eight hours from the first 
rebellious shout near Temple-bar, Ogle and Throckmorton 
are in the Gatehouse ; Baynham, Lyttleton, and Percy in 
the Fleet ; Smith and Constable in the Poultry ; Blount 
in Mr. ISTewsom's house in Paul's Churchyard, when his 
wounds allow, to be carried to the Tower ; Whitelocke 
in the Marshalsea ; Catesby in the house of Sheriff Gamble ; 
Grant and the two Wrights in the White Lion ; Danvers, 
Essex, Lee, Southampton, and Monteagle in the Tower. 

Feb. 19. 11. Swift justice is the only mercy they can now hope 
from man. 

Never has criminal fairer trial, less partial judges, than 
the Earl. His peers, the companions of his youth, the 
connexions of his blood, are summoned by a special 
message from the Crown. The most odious facts against 

11. Council Keg., Feb. 13, 1601; Jardine, i. 376. 



1601. 
Feb. II 



TRIAL OF ESSEX. 121 

him are withheld ; the Government wishing to spare his VI. 11 
memory, though they cannot in honour, and dare not in 
policy, spare his life. They shrink from proclaiming to 
the world that a kinsman of the Queen has been in 
treacherous intercourse with Jesuits and the Pope. Not 
a word is said on the trial about his midnight interviews 
with Father Wright ; not a word about his complicity in 
the publication of Hay ward's tract. Only the obvious facts 
are proved, but these suffice. From the hour of his rising 
his fate has been sealed. That girlish romance of the 
ring, that still more girlish tale of Elizabeth's weakness 
and change of mind, are idle mirage of the brain. Cam- 
den, indeed, speaks of her hesitancy ; but Camden wrote 
after the Queen's death, when it had become fashionable 
at court to speak well of the Earl. Jardine was the first 
to remark that this rumour of her changes and hesitations 
is unsupported by any one passage in the State Papers. 
In fact, Elizabeth never in her life showed less weakness 
than in the case of her rebellious kinsman. For a crime 
like his there was no mercy but the grave. v 

12. Called by the Privy Council to bear his part in this 
great drama, Bacon no more shirks his duty at the bar 
than Levison shirked his duty at Ludgate Hill, or Kaleigh 
his duty at Charing Cross. As her Counsel Learned in the 
Law, he has no ^more choice or hesitation about his duty 
of defence than her Captain of the Guard. Raleigh and 
Bacon have each tried to save the Earl as long as he 
remained an honest man ; but England is their first love, 
and by her faith, her freedom, and her Queen they must 
stand or fall. 



12. Council to Bacon, Feb. 18, 1601, S. P. O. ; Abstract of Evidence 
against Essex, July 22, 1600, S. P. O. ; Jardine, i. 316-321, 351, 360. 



122 FKANCIS BACON. 

VI. 12. Never is stern and holy duty done more gently on a 
— criminal than by Bacon on this trial. He aggravates 
1601. nothing. If he condemns the action, he refrains from 
' needless condemnation of the man. Here is his speech 
(set down, though it has already appeared in print, that 
the reader may have the whole case before his eyes with- 
out trouble of turning to another book) : 

" My Lord, I expected not that the matter of defence 
would have been excused this day ; to defend is lawful, but 
to rebel in defence is not lawful ; therefore what my Lord 
of Essex hath here delivered, in my conceit, seemetb to be 
simile prodigio. I speak not to simple men, but to pru- 
dent, grave, and wise peers, who can draw up out of the 
circumstances the things themselves. And this I must 
needs say, it is evident that my Lord of Essex had planted 
a pretence in his heart against the Government, and 
now, under colour of excuse, he layeth the cause upon his 
particular enemies. My Lord of Essex, I cannot resemble 
your proceedings more rightly than to one Pisistratus, in 
Athens, who, coming into the city with the purpose to 
procure the subversion of the kingdom and wanting aid 
for the accomplishing his aspiring desires, and as the 
surest means to win the hearts of the citizens unto him, he 
entered the city, having cut his body with a knife, to the 
end they might conjecture he had been in danger of his 
life. Even so your Lordship gave out in the streets that 
your life was sought by the Lord Cobham and Sir Walter 
Raleigh, by this means persuading yourselves, if the city 
had undertaken your cause, all would have gone well on 
your side. But the imprisoning the Queen's councillors, 
what reference had that fact to my Lord Cobham, Sir 
Walter Ealeigh, or the rest? You allege the matter to 



1601. 
Feb. 19. 



SPEECHES ON ESSEX'S TRIAL. 123 

have been resolved on a sudden. No, you were three VI. 12 
months in the deliberation thereof. Oh ! my Lord, strive 
with yourself and strip off all excuses ; the persons whom 
you aimed at, if you rightly understand it, are your best 
friends. All that you have said, or can say, in answer to 
these matters, are but shadows. It were your best course 
to confess and not to justify." 

What a contrast to the style of Coke ! Later in the day, 
after hours of prevarication on the part of Essex, Bacon 
speaks again, in a warmer tone, but without a particle of 
rancour in his words : 

" My Lord, I have never yet seen, in any case, such 
favour shown to any prisoner;, so many digressions, such 
delivering of evidence by fractions, and so silly a defence 
of such great and notorious treasons. Your Lordships may 
see how weakly my Lord of Essex hath shadowed his pur- 
pose, and how slenderly he hath answered the objections 
against him. But admit the case that the Earl's intent 
were, as he would have it, to go as a suppliant to her 
Majesty, shall petitioners be armed and guarded ? Neither 
is it a mere point of law, as my Lord of Southampton 
would have it believed, that condemns them of treason, 
but it is apparent in common sense ; to consult, to exe- 
cute, to run together in numbers, in doublets and hose, 
armed with weapons, what colour of excuse can be alleged 
for this ? And all this persisted in after being warned by 
messengers sent from her Majesty's own person. Will any 
man be so simple as to take this to be less than treason ? 
But, my Lord, doubting that too much variety of matter 
may occasion forgetfulness, I will only trouble your Lord- 
ship's remembrance with this point, rightly comparing this 
rebellion of my Lord of Essex to the Duke of Guise's, that 



1601. 
Feb. 19. 



124 FRANCIS BACON. 

VI. 12. came upon the barricadoes at Paris in bis doublet and 
hose, attended upon but with eight gentlemen ; but bis 
confidence in the city was even such as my Lord's was ; 
and when he had delivered himself so far into the shallow 
of his own conceit, and could not accomplish what he 
expected, the King taking arms against him, he was glad 
to yield himself, thinking to colour his pretexts and his 
practices I y alleging the occasion thereof to be a private 
quarrel." 

Defence there is none : the peers condemn him to death. 

Mar. 13. After trial and condemnation, when the Garter is 

plucked from his knee and the George from his breast, the 
Earl's pride and courage give way. He closes a turbulent 
and licentious life by confessing against his companions, 
still untried, more than the law-officers of the Crown could 
have proved against them ; and, despicable to relate, most 
of all against the two men who have been his closest asso- 
ciates — Blount and Cuffe. His confessions in the face of 
death deprive these prisoners of the last faint hope of 
grace. They go, with Meyrick and Danvers, to the 
gallows or to the block. But the anger of the Queen 
being stayed, the rest of the gang — Catesby, Tresham, 
Grant, Winter, Baynham, and their tribe — escape, some 
with imprisonment, some with mulct, for future villanies. 
At the end of twelve or fifteen weeks the last of the con- 
spirators leaves the Tower. 

Aug. 6. 14. Their fines reward service for which no other salaries 
are paid. The Queen, who in the fictions of biographers 
and historians is for ever starving Bacon for the good of 

13. Council Reg., Feb. 24, 1602 ; Jardine's ' Criminal Trials,' i. 366-372 ; 
State Trials, i. 1412, 1414. 

14. Council Reg., Aug. 6, 1601. 



AWAKDS FROM REBELS' FORFEITS. 125 

his soul, now makes over to him, in actual fact, a con- yi. 14. 
siderable share of Catesby's fine. The manner of this — 
grant of twelve hundred pounds is not less gracious than 1601. 
the gift itself. It is not made in the usual way, from the &• 
Lord Treasurer's office, but as a public act of the Privy 
Council and the Queen. 

A council meets at Greenwich Palace, Egerton in the 
chair. Around him sit Lord Buckhurst, the delightful 
poet; Nottingham, the great commander; the Earls of 
Shrewsbury and Worcester ; Knollys, Fortescue, and Cecil. 
These councillors draft a letter to Coke, which stands 
among the many interesting letters in the Privy Council 
register : 

A Letter to Edward Coke, Esq., Her Majesty's 
Attorney-General. 

Aug. 6, 1601. 

Forasmuch as her Majesty is pleased to bestow par- 
ticular reward upon divers of her servants, to be taken out 
of such fines as have grown unto her by the offences of 
several persons, we have thought good to let you know 
particularly who they be that are at this time to receive 
several portions in that kind, to the intent that you may 
cause some such assurances to be passed over, as the 
person may be assured to receive those portions as are 
allotted to them according to her Majesty's gracious plea- 
sure, in this sort following. When there is an assurance 
passed to her Majesty's use of certain lands, for the pay- 
ment of two thousand at several days by Francis Tresham, 
her Majesty is pleased that Mr. Lieutenant of the Tower 
shall receive the sum of a thousand five hundred pounds, 
assigned him out of that ; the other five hundred remaining 
to be disposed at her Majesty's pleasure. Next, you shall 



1601. 
Aug. ( 



126 FKANCIS BACON. 

VI. 14. understand that she is likewise pleased to divide the fine 

of Mr. Catesby between Mr. Francis Bacon, Sir Arthur 

Gorges, and Captain Carpenter, at Ostend, in this sort 

following, for which you are likewise to prepare some such 

assurance to be passed from the Queen as the person may 

receive those sums, every one pro rata, out of every portion 

as it is assigned to be paid at several times, namely, to 

Mr. Bacon the sum of a thousand two hundred pounds ; to 

Sir Arthur Gorges a thousand two hundred pounds ; and 

to Captain Carpenter the rest; for doing whereof these 

presents shall be your warrant. 

Thomas Egeeton. 

Buckhuest. 

Nottingham. 

Shrewsbury, 

Worcester. 

Knollys. 
Bobeet Cecil. 
John. Fortescue. 

Fancy Coke's delight in passing an assurance for twelve 
hundred pounds to Francis Bacon ! 

15. One actor in the drama which has shaken London 
slips mysteriously from public view. Flung into the 
Tower with Essex and Danvers, as of equal guilt, Lord 
Monteagle is neither put with them on trial for his life, 
nor, in the various public investigations, are the damning 
facts of his having sent for Augustine Phillips and of 
having paid the Globe comedians to play the deposition 
of Richard II. on the very eve of the rising, allowed 
to escape Coke's lips in a public court. That Phillips 
was sent for to Essex House, and was there paid money 

15. Phillips' Examination, Feb. 18, 1601, S. P. 0. ; State Trials, i. 1445. 



HIS PART AGAINST ESSEX. 127 

to change the play at the Blackfriars theatre, are facts VI. 15. 

too grave for the prosecution to conceal ; but when Coke 

rose, with the comedian's evidence in his hand, he dropped 

the name of Lord Monteagle from the sworn depositions, S ' 

inserting that of Meyrick in its place ! Meyrick is hanged, 

Monteagle only fined. 

Cecil must have his reasons for this strange suppression, 
this cruel substitution : reasons which become clear from 
Monteagle's share in the more terrible drama of the Powder 
Plot. 

16. Lord Campbell writes, and many others have written, 
as though it would have been right for Bacon to have shirked 
his part in this great act of justice. Yet this can hardly be 
his serious meaning. To put Bacon in the wrong, the 
objector must prove Essex to have been acting in his right. 
This, it may be safely asserted, they can never do. If all 
writers must agree that England was justified in crushing 
with swift, stern hand this peculiarly hideous and unnatural 
plot, by what path of reasoning can we come to a conclu- 
sion that one of the Queen's Counsellors, called to his duty 
by the Crown, was not right ? 

In Bacon's place, we must assume that Lord Campbell 
would have done his duty as Bacon did. There is no 
second course for honest men. Bring the case down. 
Lord Campbell has had many clients : men who have paid 
him fees far larger than the patch of meadow tossed to 
Bacon by the Earl. Imagine events arming the papal 
powers once more against England ; hostile fleets off the 
coast ; O'Donnel or M'Mahon at the head of a successful 
host in Connaught ; Zouaves swarming in Cork ; our 
colonies menaced with fire and sword ; a gang of ruffians, 

16. Campbell's ' Lives of the Chancellors,' iii. 37, 39. 



1601. 
Aug. 



128 FKANCIS BACON. 

VI. 16. spawn of the stews and prisons, abroad in London; the 
Queen's cousin of Hanover plotting with all those rebels 
and fanatics against her crown and life ; a foreign league 
resolving to put down our free constitution and our Pro- 
testant faith ; imagine, under all these circumstances of 
alarm, one of Lord Campbell's former clients, a man for 
whose personal character he felt no respect and whose 
political conduct he held in abhorrence, joining with John 
Mitchell, Dr. Cullen, and the disbanded remnants of the 
Pope's brigade in open rebellion against the law, in rousing 
the dregs of the city, in shedding innocent blood at Charing 
Cross ; would not Lord Campbell, under such provocations, 
do his duty as a lawyer and as a man ? 

This was Bacon's case. He owed nothing to Essex that 
could have tempted even a weak man to take the wrong 
side instead of the right side. He owed allegiance to 
his country and to truth. He was as much the Queen's 
officer, armed with her commission, bound to obey her 
commands, as her Captain of the Guard. He had no part in 
the Earl's crime, and utterly abhorred his means, his asso- 
ciates, and his ends. To have done more than he did in 
the conduct of this bad drama might have been noble 
and patriotic ; to have done less would have been to act 
like a weak girl, not like a great man. 

Oct. 17. That the bearing of Francis Bacon throughout 

these mournful events is just and noble, is the public 
verdict of his time. Lord Campbell talks of his fall in 
popularity. " For some time after Essex's execution 
Bacon was looked upon with great aversion." But, in 
truth, he never loses for a day the hearts of his coun- 
trymen. Of this the proofs are incontestable. While the 

17. Campbell's ' Bacon,' iii. 43 ; Willis, ' Not. Pari.,' 149. 



Oct. 



RETURNED FOR IPSWICH AND ST. ALBANS. 129 

spirits of men are yet warm with remembrance of the VI. 17. 
scenes at Tyburn and on Tower Hill, writs travel down — 
into the shires for a new Parliament. Now, therefore, 
comes the proof how far he has fallen. If he be 
thought of with aversion, as Lord Campbell says, here 
are the means, the opportunities, and the scenery for 
a condign revenge. The scot and lot men of Elizabeth 
are not nice. A. candidate cross to the moods of squire and 
freeman often finds himself burned in straw, pelted with 
foul eggs, or drummed by humorous rogues from the county 
town. Do the friends of Lord Essex rise on his adversaries ? 
Is the drum beaten against Raleigh, or the stone flung 
at Bacon? Just the reverse. The world has not been 
with the rebellious Earl ; and those who have struck down 
the papist plot are foremost in the ranks of the new Parlia- 
ment. Four years ago Bacon had been chosen to represent 
Ipswich, and the chief town of Suffolk again ratifies its 
choice. But his public acts have won for him a second 
constituency in St. Albans. Such a double return— always 
rare in the House of Commons — is the highest compli- 
ment that could have been paid to the purity and popu- 
larity of his political life. 



130 FRANCIS BACON. 



I 



CHAPTEK VII. 



THE NEW KEIGN. 



VII. 1. 2. Nok is Bacon's popularity a tide at the ebb. The 
-i fi0 o Queen dies. A King conies in who knows not Joseph, nor 
Arcril ^ e P rnic ipl es °f Joseph. James has secretly promised 
peace to Spain. A man of weak nerve and small quick 
brain, fond of his ease, a friend of dogmatic controversies 
and a stranger to religion, he can neither tolerate nor 
understand the passionate fervour of the realm for this 
foreign war. By war he sees that he may offend the Jesuits 
and the Pope, men who can put poison into his wine or 
sharpen against him an assassin's knife. What are the Dutch 
to him, that he should offend for them the masters of a 
hundred legions and twenty secret fraternities? Why, 
these Dutch are in arms against lawful kings ! England, 
it is true, has undertaken their defence, and, in league 
with Henri Quatre, she has for many years past com- 
manded in their towns and camps. But the treaties of 
Elizabeth, he says, are not his treaties, nor can he hold 
himself bound by the acts of a woman and a fool. 

But the desertion of a cause which every man between 
the four seas possessing high spirit and sound faith feels to 
be his own, is not the act of a day. A path must be pre- 
pared. The eager spirits must be dispersed or stunned, the 
great fighting-men must be crushed or bribed. Cecil adopts 
this policy of peace, which suits his genius and secures to 
himself the foremost place. Nottingham is won by a youth- 

1. King's MSS. 123 ; Harl. MSS. 532. 



1603. 

Nov. 



UNDER A CLOUD AT COURT. 131 

ful bride, and Vere is recalled from the Flemish camp. A VII. 1. 
master-work of political art sends Gray and Kaleigh to 
the Tower. At the same time Bacon is thrust aside, dis- 
credited to the new sovereign, his usual access to the 
throne refused, and his proffered services of tongue and 
pen disdained. 

2. At court he is under a cloud. The patron of Essex, 1604. 
the employer of Valentine Thomas, takes into his grace Jan. 
all those who shared in the Earl's affections and in his 
crime. Southampton is restored in blood. Lady Rich 
and the Countess of Northumberland appear at court. 
Lady Rich's lover, Montjoy, becomes an earl. Rutland gets 
the reversion of a royal park, Monteagle a grant of land. 
Among those old partizans of Essex, who now keep the gates 
of Whitehall and dispose of offices and grants, Bacon is 
undoubtedly unpopular : less, however, for his past speech 
against the Earl than for his present defence of the dead 
Queen. In James's ear the name of Elizabeth is rank ; 
on Bacon's tongue and pen her virtues live and her glories 
speak. When no man but himself dares breathe her name 
in the court of her successor, he composes that magnificent 
prose elegy, In felicem Memoriam Elizabethse, which he 
himself esteems the most precious of all his works. The 
cloud is at Whitehall or at Hampton Court, not at Ipswich 
or St. Albans. To the country his name is dear as ever. 
When writs go out for the first Parliament of the new 
reign (one purpose of which is to restore the friends of 
Devereux in estate and blood), though the King and court 
bear hard against him, Ipswich and St. Albans send him to 

2. Grant Book of James the First, 2, 3, S. P. O. ; Doquets of James the 
First, Nov. 13, 1604, S. P. 0. ; Warrant Book of James the First, 4, 
S. P. O ; In felicem memoriam Elizabethse, Bacon's Works, vi. 283 ; Willis, 
Not. Pari., 160. 

K 2 



1604. 
Feb. 



132 FKANCIS BACON. 

VII. 2. London once again by a double return. Nor is this all. 
So soon as the burgesses meet in Westminster, he becomes 
again, what he has been before in every session for twenty 
years, their chief. Some go so far as to use his name for 
Speaker of the House ; a fact unknown to Lord Campbell ; 
yet worth a word in reference to the report of his lying at 
that very moment under public ban. 

Mar. 27. 3. By ancient usage the Crown appointed the Speaker 
to be chosen by the House. A leave to elect came down, 
weighted with a particular recommendation ; and, like a 
dean and chapter in the election of a bishop, the squires and 
burgesses were expected to adopt the royal choice. A time 
has now come for trying what force remains in these feudal 
forms. Some members think this leave to elect a Speaker 
should be taken in its open sense : that the House should 
choose its officers, causing these old pretensions of the Crown 
to cease. When, therefore, the court proposes Sir Edward 
Phellippes, a buzz and hum of opposition rises. Why not 
have a Speaker of their own ? Hastings, Neville, Bacon, 
each is named. Hastings is a Puritan, Neville an oppo- 
nent of the court. That each of these men should be 
deemed fit instruments of opposition to the Crown is sus- 
ceptible of easy explanation. But Bacon is neither a 
Puritan nor an enemy of the court. He differs from the 
Puritans on some of their principles, particularly on their 
intolerance for errors of faith ; and he supports the King 
against many of their most obstinate prejudices, particu- 
larly their repugnance to a union with the Scots. Yet the 
gentlemen who live with him and serve with him, who 
dine at the same tables, laugh over the same jests, and 

3. Com. Jour., i. 141 ; Bacon's Essays, No. 3 ; Bacon's Speech on the 
Naturalization of the Scots, State Trials, ii. 575. 



SERVICE ON COMMITTEES. 133 

sometimes, it is likely, suffer from his wit, believe he VII. 3. 
may be played, in a good cause, even against the King. — 

These gentlemen have not discovered that Bacon is a 1604 ' 

corrupt and obsequious rogue. ar * 

4. If the House of Commons, not yet strong enough to April, 
give battle to the Crown on such a field as the choice of 
Speaker, accepts the nomination of Phellippes, it puts 
Bacon forward as its man of confidence, electing him on 
the Standing Committee of Privileges, on the Committee 
of Grievances, of which he is named reporter, on the Com- 
mittee for Conference on the Kestraint of Speech, on the 
Committee for Union with Scotland ; in all, on twenty-nine 
committees. All through the session he speaks with a 
boldness, an ability, a frequency unrivalled in the House 
of Commons before his day or since. The topics are great 
and various: abuses in the taverns, the laws against 
witchcraft, the licence of purveyors, the election of mem- 
bers, the sin of adultery, the increase of drunkenness, the 
sale of Crown offices and lands. Two topics stand out from 
the rest with almost solid brightness of historical outline. 
These are the Grievances and the Union. 

On the first he has the disadvantage of differing from 
the Crown; on the second from a majority of those 
country gentlemen with whom he usually speaks and 
votes. James will not hear of the List of Grievances, 
nor will the burgesses vote his Bill of Union with 
the Scots. Each side has its personal feeling and its 
narrow view. With a deeper wisdom and a larger pa- 
triotism, Bacon, while he sees with the King that these 
claims to suspend the penal laws, to grant private mono- 
polies, to command personal service, to sign away heiresses 

4. Com. Joiir., i. 142-253 ; Lords' Jour., ii. 206, 309. 



134 FKANCIS BACON. 

VII. 4. in marriage, to supply his kitchen from the poulterer's 
basket and his cellars from the vintner's store at his own 
price, are each and all incontestably historical, founded in 
custom older in date than the oldest statute in the book, 
sees also with the complaining citizen or squire that 
time, by its slow but devouring sap, has hollowed the 
ground on which these regal privileges stand, so that 
they have no longer a safe foundation on which to 
rest, and seeks to improve the old ways before improve- 
ment is too late. But James is deaf. To take from him 
the right to reward a barber with a wine patent, to 
compel the young noble to hold his reins or feed his 
dogs, to match his favourites of the bedchamber with the 
daughters of English earls, to fetch in ale from Black- 
friars and fish from Billingsgate wharf, to grant leave to 
his groom, or the darling of his groom, to vend pardons 
for rape and arson, burglary and murder, would, iu his 
opinion, be to rob him of the most princely attributes of 
his high rank. 

5. Some among the Commons are not less weak than 
James. When they see him break his word, turn his back 
on the List of Grievances, nip in the flower their hopes of 
a Church reform, begin a secret correspondence with the 
Cardinal Archduke and with the Pope, they set them- 
selves to oppose his policy even in the few particulars on 
which his policy is just and sound. In a union with the 
Scots Bacon finds a measure of defence against Spain. A 
dull squire sees in it only an opening for the rush into 
• London of savages with red beards, bare legs, and scurvy 
tongues. 

5. Abstract by Bacon of Objections in the House of Commons, April 25, 
1604, S. P. O. ; Speech on the Union, April 25, 1604, S. P. O. 



INTRODUCES THE BILL OF UNION. 135 

Waiving his own wrongs for the public good, Bacon VII. 5. 
draws for the King the draft of a Bill of Union, which he 
introduces into the House of Commons in a splendid 
speech, opening to the view of knight and squire apolitical " 
scene, in which he pictures to their minds the contending 
nationalities and hostile creeds of Europe, striving, by his 
bold, persuasive eloquence, to lure them into pondering 
less on the ancient feud of Saxon and Scot, more on the 
permament safety of the English faith and power. With 
all the lights of fancy, all the subtleties of logic, he meets 
on one side the obstinacy of his colleagues, on the other 
side the perverseness of his prince. Each, however, holds 
to his own. The Grievances are not heard, the Bill of 
Union does not pass. 

6. While Bacon is making these splendid displays of July, 
political wisdom and personal independence in the House 
of Commons, Lord Campbell fancies him slinking and 
skulking under public odium ! 

Lord Campbell takes everything on trust. When 
Bacon got his knighthood, Lord Campbell says he was 
"infinitely gratified by being permitted to kneel down 
with three hundred others." Now, Bacon's letters to Cecil 
on the knighthood are not only in print, but are known to 
every one who reads. In place of being infinitely gra- 
tified, Bacon protests against the shame of being com- 
pelled to kneel down with Peter and John. So again with 
his marriage to Alice Barnham. Lord Campbell makes 
merry over his mercenary love and his match of conveni- 
ence. Yet from his own text, and from the pages of 
Montagu, it is certain that he knows nothing whatever of 
this love or of this match ; neither who Alice Barnham 

6. Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, iii. 49. 



1604. 
July. 



136 FRANCIS BACON. 

V II. 6. was? nor the circumstances of her parents ; neither when 
she became Bacon's wife, nor the amount of jointure which 
she brought home to her lord. He imagines that Alice 
became Lady Bacon in 1603, shortly after July 3rd. He 
says she was rich. 

In all that relates to Alice Barnham the writers of 
Bacon's life have been as much at fault as though she had 
been first the love and then the wife of Ward the Kover 
or Steer the Leveller, in place of being, as she was, lady 
to a man who framed the New Philosophy and held 
the Great Seal. Yet some of the facts about her birth, 
the associations of her early years, the members of her 
family, the circumstances of her love, courtship, marriage, 
and wedded life, may still be recovered from the manu- 
script mounds of the Bodleian, the State Paper Office, and 
the library of Westwood Park. 

Aug. 7. More than a year ago, in writing to his cousin Cecil, 

Bacon mentioned his having found a handsome maiden to 
his mind. She loved him and he loved her. But her 
mother, a widow and again a wife, having made two good 
matches for herself, has set her heart on making great 
alliances for her girls. In part to please her, still more 
to glorify his bride, Bacon Avaits and toils that he may lay 
at her feet a settled fortune and a more splendid name. 

The family into which — when he can steal an hour from 
the courts of law and the pursuits of science — he goes 
a-courting, and in which he is now an accepted lover, 
consists of four girls, their pretty mother, and a bold, 

7. Bacon to Cecil, July 3, 1603; Notes on the Pakington Family in 
Wotton's Baronetage, ed. by Kimber and Johnson, i. 180. Wotton's 
account was derived from a MS. History of Sir John Pakington written 
by the Rev. Mr. Tomkins, a Prebendary of Worcester, preserved in 
"Wotton's time at Westwood Park. The MS. is now lost. 



COURTS ALICE BARNHAM. 137 

handsome, heady stepfather of fifty-six : a group of persons VII. 7. 

notable from their private stories, and of romantic interest — 

from their loves and feuds with the philosopher, and from 1604 - 

the part they must have had in shaping his views of the u ^* 
felicities and infelicities of domestic life. 

8. The four young girls are the orphan daughters of 
Benedict Barnham, merchant of Cheapside and alderman 
of his ward ; an honest fellow, who gave his wife a good 
lift in the world, and left his children to take their 
chance of rising among men who, with all their sins, are 
never blind to the merits of women blessed with youth, 
loveliness, and wealth. Alice is the first to fall in love ; 
but the three hoydens who now romp around her, and 
perhaps get many a hug and kiss from her famous lover, 
will soon be in their turns followed for their bright eyes 
and brighter gold. Elizabeth will marry Mervin Touchet, 
Earl of Castlehaven, that miserable wretch who, when his 
first young wife, the hoyden of to-day, is in her grave, will 
expiate on the block the foulest crime ever charged against 
an English peer. The two little things now playing at 
Alice's knee will become, in due time, Lady Constable 
and Lady Soames. 

The mother of these girls was a daughter of Hum- 
phrey Smith, of Cheapside, silkman to the Queen. Eager, 
lovely, and aspiring, she won the alderman of her ward 
— an admirable city match ; but she meant and means 
to rise yet higher in the world, and heaven has given 
her the strength to fight her way. Of the four husbands 
whom she has made, or has still to make, the happiest of 
their sex, each is to be in his turn a loftier one than 

8. Wotton, i. 180-186 ; Nasli's History of Worcestershire, i. 352 ; Collins' 
Peerage, art. ' Audley.' 



138 FKANCIS BACON. 

•VII. 8. the last. She has buried a citizen. She will, in turn, 
— bury her knight. She will then marry a baron, and, on 
his death, an earl.^ Barnham was her early choice. 
■*' When he left her with the four girls and a great 
estate, Sir John Pakington, of Hampton Lovet, ancestor 
of that Worcestershire baronet who is said to have sat 
to Addison for the portrait of Sir Koger de Coverley, 
proffered to console her with his hearty affection and his 
good old name. The widow was not perverse. If she 
wept for the dear alderman of Cheapside, it was in a 
coach emblazoned with the mullets and wheatsheafs, and 
with a handsome and jovial knight at her side. 

9. Sir John has been a father to the four girls ; for if 
rough and ready, apt to quarrel and quick to strike, he has 
a gentle and manly heart. A gentleman with due pride 
in his long line and his broad lands, in his length of leg 
and width of chest, he is known at Christchurch and 
on Eichmond-green as Lusty Pakington; and the good 
old Queen, who liked to see a man a Man, made him, 
for his brave looks, a Knight of the Bath. A great swim- 
mer, an adroit swordsman, few who can help it ever care to 
wait the shock of his hasty temper or his vigorous thrust. 
The great man of his country-side, he sends his buck 
for the judges' table at assizes, and has his name put 
first on every commission from the Crown, whether the 
shire is called to raise forces against Spain, build light- 
houses in the Bristol Channel, or provide for the wants of 
sick and disabled troops ; but when orders from the Crown 

9. Council Keg., Aug. 24, 1600, June 6, Oct. 13, 1601 ; Wotton, i. 180 ; 
The Camden Society's Miscellany, iv. 50. There is a portrait of Sir John 
at Westwood Park. My impressions of him are mainly derived from a 
multitude of private papers preserved at Westwood, free access to which I 
owe to the obliging courtesies of the Eight Hon. Sir John Pakington, 
Bart., his descendant and successor. 



SIR JOHN PAKINGTON. 139 

oppose his own particular humour, as they sometimes VII. 9. 
do, he quietly puts them in the fire. The Privy Council — 
has to be rather plain and rough with the jovial knight. 
Once he laid a wager to swim against three stout gal- &• 

lants from Westminster to London-bridge ; but the Queen 
forbade the match, lest some of the fools should get 
drowned. He has a passion for building and digging on a 
princely scale. He buys a whole forest of trees for his 
salt-pits aud for the great house which he is building at 
Westwood Park, and he sinks a great farm of a hundred 
acres under water that he may have room to swim and 
fish. Debt catches the generous spendthrift in its claws ; 
and that which could not force him into meanness, lures 
him, at the age of fifty, into love. When maddened by 
duns, he swore to be free of such rogues, even if he had to 
give up London, and live on bread and verjuice. News 
that Sir John was going to forsake the town, to sell 
horses and dogs, and, for the time to come, live on his 
own estate, shoot in the woods round Hampton Lovet, and 
stick to the sessions of Worcester, as his father and grand- 
father had done before him, soon got wing ; when sixty 
stout gentlemen and yeomen of the shire, his friends 
and tenants, seated in their own saddles, pricked up to 
London, and waited for him at the palace-gates while he 
went in to bid the Queen adieu. Sorry to miss so fine a 
gentleman from her court, Elizabeth gave him an estate in 
Suffolk, worth from eight to nine hundred pounds a year, of 
traitor's land. Off he spurred to take possession ; but, on 
gaining the door of his new house, he found there a mourn- 
ing lady with her children in despair. In place of kicking 
them out into the street, he ran away himself, nor ever rested 
in his bed till he got the Queen to take back her gift and 
bestow it on the weeping lady and her little brood. When 



140 FRANCIS BACON. 

YII. 9. a good friend in the city whispered in his ear the name 
1604 °^ w ^ ow Barnham, the great affectionate fellow, wanting 
Aug; ^° *^£ an( ^ k uu *d, an( ^ having no objection to four pretty 
girls to romp with him and love him, as they were sure to 
do, dashed into Cheapside, told his bashful little tale, 
and the young widow, wooed for the second time in her 
life, said Yes. 

10. A brood of PaMngtons has joined the brood of 
Barnhams — Mary, Ann, and John their names. Mary will 
live to become Lady Brook; Ann first to become Lady 
Ferrars, then Countess of Chesterfield ; Jack will be the 
first baronet of his line ; and his son, Jack also, will be 
the famous cavalier who sacrificed so much for Charles 
the First, and who married Lady Dorothy, the friend of 
Hammond, and the reputed author of ' The Whole Duty 
of Man.' 

The Barnhams and Pakingtons keep house together; 
in summer-time at Hampton Lovet, among the oaks and 
apple-trees ; in term and sessions, when the world rides 
up to town, they hire a lodging in the Strand, over against 
the door of the Savoy church. Their home is in Worces- 
tershire : a big stone house, in a wooded dell, close by 
Hampton-brook, and at the foot of Hornsgrove-hill : a 
pile with flanking wings, a trim parterre in front, and 
five huge lanterns on the roof, from which nothing 
can be seen save the square plain tower of the village 
church, the clasping zone of wood, and now and then a 
curl of ascending smoke from the Droitwich salt-pans. 
Near a mile from Hampton Lovet lie the ruins of an 
ancient abbey, which may possibly have been the scene 

10. I derive these details from the Westwood MSS., the stained glasses 
of Hampton Lovet church, and personal inspection of the localities, with 
the valuable aid of Sir John and Lady Pakmgton. 



HAMPTON LOVET. 141 

of Sir Roger's ghost. A chain of ponds, alive with fish VII. 10. 
and fed by natural springs, drips past the ruin, and beyond — 
these slants a bright green grassy upland, bare of wood, 
from the top of which, a level table-land, the eye sweeps 
lovingly over wood and water, hill and hamlet and 
orchard; near it the village spires of Ombersley and 
Hampton ; far away the cathedral towers of Worcester ; and 
in the distance, over leagues of country, powdered in May 
with the pink and white of innumerable apple-trees, in 
autumn warm with the ruddy glow of the ploughed red 
land, the bold purple ridge of the Malvern hills. On 
this plateau, high above the low-lying woods, Sir John 
has begun to build a big house and dig a big lake — a 
house of rough red brick, with a grand hall and a state- 
room above it, panelled, carved, and tapestried : a house 
like himself, thoroughly genuine and English, in which he 
is to die, and his descendants are to live. His new lake, 
close by his house, is the wonder and bugbear of the 
shire. ^ 

11. Between this proud mother and this burly knight 
the course of Bacon's love for Alice has no great hope of 
running smooth. Lady Pakington adores great people ; 
thinking more of Sir Francis Bacon as a friend and 
favourite of the Lord Chancellor than she would have 
thought of him had he already published the Great 
Instauration. Lady Egerton condescends to keep her 
in good humour while the man of genius waits and 
labours for a better time. 

He has still to wait, even for that rise in his profession Oct. 28. 
which is incontestably his due. On the death of Sir 

11. Bacon to Egerton, in Tanner MSS. 251, fol. 38 b ; Doquets, Aug. 18, 
Oct. 28, 1604, S. P. O. 



142 FKANCIS BACON. 

VII. 11. William Peryam, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and the 
third husband of his sister Elizabeth Bacon, Fleming 
becomes Chief Baron, yet the Solicitorship, vacant once 
more, is given over his head to Sir John Doderidge, 
Serjeant of the coif. 



1604. 
Oct. 28. 



1605. 12. A brief reference in the charge against William 

Nov. Talbot, a phrase here and there in his Essays, have told 
the world what Bacon thought of the Powder Plot. It 
has not been known that he had any part, slight or serious, 
in repressing this foul conspiracy, the natural sequel of 
the Essex plot. 

The new facts are found in an unpublished letter from 
Bacon to CeciL 
Nov. 8. The crime of Essex, the royal patronage of the conspira- 
tors, have borne their fruit in the Westminster mine. It is 
the eighth of November, four days after the strange disco- 
very made by Lord Monteagle. Eawkes is in the Tower. 
Catesby, Percy, Christopher and John Wright are riding 
through the midland shires, flinging away cloaks and scarfs, 
the country at their heels. The fight is not yet won. Jesuits 
peer from the slums of Whitefriars, and many who have 
come to. town for the fifth of November still lurk among 
the sheds of Drury-lane. True citizens keep watch and 
ward, lest, maddened by defeat, some desperate villain 
should commit midnight murder or scatter midnight fire. 

John Drake, serving-man to Reynolds, a gentleman 
living in pleasant Holborn, hears a fellow named Beard 
declare that the plot was a brave plot, and that he, for one, 
regrets it has failed. Drake runs to his master, and 
Beynolds repeats to the Principal of Staple Inn the sus- 

12. Bacon to Cecil, Nov. 8, 1605, S. P. O. ; Examination of John Drake, 
Nov. 8, 1605, S. P. 0. 



1605. 

Nov. 8. 



HIS TOLERATION. 143 

picious words his servant has overheard. The Principal VUL 12 
sees that here is no case for a city Dogberry : Beard must 
be a Papist, may be a plotter. Away he posts with the 
ancients of his Inn to Bacon's rooms in Gray's Inn Square. 
The words are bad. but general — may mean little, may 
mean much. The knave should certainly be caught and 
questioned. Bacon sends the examination of Drake to 
Cecil, with the following note : — 

Bacon to Cecil. 

It mat please youb Lordship, Xov. s, i605. 

• I send an examination of one who was brought to 
me by the principal and ancients of Staple Inn. touching 
the words of one Beard, suspected for a Papist and prac- 
tiser, — being general words, but bad, and I thought not 
good to neglect anything at such a time ; so with signi- 
fication of humble duty, I remain, at your Lordship's 

honourable commands, most hurnblv. 

F. Bacon. 

13. Even the atrocious plot of Fawkes and Garnet. 
though its success would have been death to him. as to *- Ta11 - 
so many more, does not sour Bacon into a persecutor. He 
classes their crime with the massacres of Paris : but while 
the bigots find in these monstrous aberrations a plea for 
hanging and embowelling Eoman Catholics who have 
taken no part in them, he finds, as wise and tolerant men 
see in them now after a lapse of two hundred and sixty 
vears, an argument against arming any one sect of men 
with the persecutor's sword. The traitor he gives up to the 

13. Mathews to Carleton, July. 1606, S. P.O.; Ap. to Salisbury's Ori- 
ginal Papers relating to Enbens, 341, 343: Bacon's Essays, ed. of 1625, 
No. 3; Mathews to Bacon, April 14, July 16, 1616, Lambeth MSS. 936. 



Jan. 



144 FRANCIS BACON. 

VII. 13. law ; the heretic is to him a brother who has lost his way. 
— In the noblest and most original of his Essays, penned in 
1606. ^e p r j me f ki s intellectual powers, he especially explains 
and defends this principle of toleration. But the doctrine of 
his book had been previously exercised as a virtue in his 
life. The lapse of Tobie Mathews from the English Church 
to Kome puts his tolerant philosophy to the proof. Born on 
the steps of the episcopal bench, his grandfather a bishop, 
his father a bishop, four of his uncles bishops, all his con- 
nexions in the Church, the fall of this young man makes a 
noise in England loud as the apostacy of Spalatro makes 
in Borne. The Puritans would cut him off branch and 
bole. When he comes from Italy to London, having given 
up all his old delights, cards, wenches, wine, and oaths, 
some, who are not themselves saints, would fling him into 
the Tower and leave him there to die, as Spalatro, venturing 
into Borne, is sent to perish in the dungeons of St. An- 
gelo. James is bitterly incensed against him, looking on 
his fall as that of a column of his church ; his father drives 
him from his heart with a curse ; yet, when his whole kin 
spit on him and cast him forth, Bacon, strong in his sym- 
pathy for a scholar and a man who has lost his way, takes 
this outcast and regenerate pervert to his house. Though 
he fights against his friend's new doctrines, he never will 
consent, with the less tolerant world, to hunt him down for 
a change in his speculative views, which every eye can 
see has made him a better and a happier man. The philo- 
sopher may not be always able, by any sacrifice of name 
and credit, to shield this enthusiast from the rage of sects, 
but he comforts him when in jail, procures leave for him 
to return from exile, softens towards him the heart of his 
father, and obtains for him indulgences which probably 
save his life. 



SIR JOHN PAKINGTON. 145 

14. In the session which meets after the plot Bacon VII. 14. 
plays a most active and brilliant part. The whole world — 
has come to town : some to see that the King is safe, some 
to see the traitors hang. Among others have come up 
Sir John and Lady Pakington, together with the young- 
ladies from Westwood Park. 

Sir John has left behind him for a few weeks his brine- 
pits, his great pool, his herds of deer, his new house in the 
wood, his petty squabbles with the neighbouring squires, 
and penned himself and the young ladies in a lodging of 
the Strand, not only that he may see the opening of par- 
liament and hear the news, but that he may fight his way 
through two or three of his ugly scrapes. In digging his 
huge pond in Westwood Park, he has put under water some 
part of an old road, never doubting his power to do what 
he saw good on his own estate, the more so that he has 
given a turn to the road more convenient for himself and 
for every one else. A neighbour, between whom and Sir 
John no love is lost, seeing the flaw in this easy mode of 
making things straight, procures from the Crown an order 
to remove the pond and restore the King's ancient high- 
way. This news he sends to Westwood, saying, with a 
politeness which the hot old gentleman reads for insult, 
that, though he has such an order in his hands, he shall 
not use it so long as the knight shall be pleased to live 
with him on friendly terms. Scorning to owe his pleasures 
to such a fellow, Sir John breaks down his banks, and, 
the pool lying high, the waters race and crash through 
the orchards, strewing the fields with dead fish for a 
mile or more, and discolouring the Severn as far off as 

14. Carleton to Chamberlain, May 11, 1600, S. P. O. ; Wotton, i. 184 ; 
Heath's Preface to Bacon's Speech on the Jurisdiction of the Marches, vii. 
509 ; Dom, Papers James I., x. 86. 



146 FRANCIS BACON. 

VII. 14. Worcester for a week. Having let out his pool, he has 
1606 come to answer for himself, and seek power to fill it 
Yeb with water and fish once more. 

A yet more serious quarrel with Lord Zouch has helped 
to bring him up to town. As President of the Council of 
Wales and the Welsh Marches, Lord Zouch has for a long- 
time claimed a certain jurisdiction over the four border 
shires of Gloucester, Hereford, Salop, and Worcester; a 
claim which the shires deny and resist, with loud speeches 
from the gentry, met by threats of force on the part of Zouch, 
tumultuous riding, signing, and protesting, ending for a 
day hi solemn appeals from the four shires to the House 
of Commons, and from the angry Council of Wales to the 
King. Sir Herbert Crofts, Knight of the shire for Here- 
ford, has the cause against Zouch in hand. Sir John, who 
is Sheriff of Worcester, but not a Parliament man, having 
no tongue to wag, has yet a passionate interest in the 
appeal ; for Lord Zouch not only claims a certain authority 
in his county, but shows no sense of the respect due, even 
from a peer, to so great a man as Sir John. 

15. Alice is now near her lover, whom she may spy as 
he trots from Gray's Inn to Westminster, or lounges from 
the House towards Chancery-lane. Bacon sees many a 
rock ahead. He is still a simple knight, and he has the 
misery of differing from Sir John on the great question of 
Lord Zouch and the shires. 

Sir John can hardly make him out. Pakington is a 
Koyalist root and branch, one who has lent money to his 
Prince on Privy Seals, and who would draw a sword 
for Church and King with the ready zeal which made 

15. Com. Jour., i. 286, 299 ; App. to the Verney Papers, ed. by John 
Bruce, 281. 



HIS LOFTY POSITION. 147 

his grandson famous among the soldiers of Charles the VII. 15. 

First ; yet this young lawyer, who has spent his life ' 

in recommending reforms, presumes to defend against 

. Feb 

him, loyal Sir John, the prerogatives of the Crown! 

Wiser heads than that of the warm old AVorcester- 
shire knight are often at fault when trying to explain to 
themselves the relations of Bacon to the Puritan House 
of Commons and to the episcopal and regal court. Yet 
they seem to be easy of explanation. It is, indeed, so 
rare for a man to stand on good terms with a hostile 
Crown and House of Commons, that it is often thought 
and sometimes found to be impossible. Winwood tried 
it. Strafford tried it. Pym would have tried it. But 
Winwood lost favour with the House when he took office 
under the Crown ; lost favour at Court when he leaned to 
the Puritan opinions of the House. Strafford and Pym had 
each to choose a side. Bacon's position was far more lofty, 
and for years it seemed as if it were more secure. From his 
height of view and round of sympathy he is unable to 
throw himself, tongue and pen, into the exclusive and 
sectarian lines of either camp. His reconciling genius 
spans the dividing stream of party. Above the foolish 
Prince and petulant squires, he sees his country; not 
merely the England of Bancroft, of the Hampton Court 
Conference, of the Proclamation against Papists ; but the 
England of a thousand years, of Alfred and of Edward, of 
Cressy and of Cadiz, of Chaucer and "of Spenser ; the 
England of a glorious past and a hopeful future; the 
land which nurtured Wycliffe and Caxton, which broke 
the spiritual bonds of Leo, which crushed the invin- 
cible fleets of Spain. This country he strives to arm, to 
free, to guide ; now by aiding the King in questions of 
revenue and of union ; now by aiding the House in ques- 

l 2 



148 FRANCIS BACON. 

VII. 15. tions of reform or war. In each he is consistent first 
~ and last. His first votes in the House were for supplies, 
-p , his last speech will be for supplies. With no fear of the 
controversial genius of Borne, he feels a wholesome dread 
of the fleets and regiments of Spain ; those tracts by which 
Parsons, Schioppius, and Bellarmino sting the sleep from 
so many pillows pass him by ; but he cannot hear unmoved 
that the same Paul who has launched an interdict on Yenice 
is forming a Koman Catholic League against England; 
that the O'Neiles and O'Donnels driven out from Ireland 
by Lord Montjoy are hurrying home from Brussels and 
Madrid; thut rebels are drilling in the wilds of Con- 
naught and Ulster ; that Fajardo is manning his ships in 
Cadiz bay, and Brochero proffering his red hand to brush 
away Virginia with steel and flame. Willing to meet the 
men of words with words, he is not less eager to meet 
the men of war with steel and lead, the midnight assassin 
with the chain, the gibbet, and the cord. Now, to starve 
the Crown is to leave England weak. True, the Prince is 
lax, and moneys voted for the musters and the fleets 
may chance to drop into the pouches of Hume and 
Herbert and Carr; yet of two dark evils he chooses to 
dare the least, seeing that to pare down the subsidies, 
as many virtuous and unreasoning squires propose, is to 
subject James and his needy servants to the magnificent 
corruptions of Lerma, the great minister of Spain, 
already suspected, and with truth, of having taken the 
chief men of the Privy Council and the Bedchamber into 
his pay. Better own the King's debts than let Lerma pay 
them. Therefore, while he speaks with Hastings and Hyde 
against patents, wardships, private monopolies, the whole 
tag-rag of feudal privilege, he constantly votes with 
Hitcham and Hobart for those supplies which are necessary 



CONSULTED BY CECIL. 149 

to maintain the splendour of the Crown and the efficiency VII. 15. 

of the musters and the fleet. — 

Here he parts from the majority ; wide as in his vote 

for union with the Scots. e ' 

16. Cecil, knowing his kinsman free from selfish and 
sectarian views, consults him on the money-bills and settle- 
ments. The debates on a grant for the new reign are about 
to come on ; and Cecil, who as Earl of Salisbury sits in 
the Peers, has begun to feel his need of a bold and in- 
fluential friend in the Lower House. He hints that the 
Court shall no longer oppose Bacon's rise at the bar. On 
his part, Bacon is ready to assist the Crown in procuring 
an ample grant; to shape drafts and preambles such as 
may disarm the resentment of knight and squire. Cecil 
takes him at his word, and Bacon drafts a bill. Here is a 
note which shows how he is nearing power : 

Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury. 

It may please your good Lordship, Feb. 10, 1606. 

I cannot as I would express how much I think 
myself bounden to your Lordship for your tenderness over 
my contentments. But herein I will endeavour hereafter 
as I am able. I send your Lordship a preamble for the 
subsidy, drawing which was my morning's labour to-day. 
This mould or frame, if you like it not, I will be ready to 
cast it again, de novo, if I may receive your honourable 
directions : for any particular corrections, it is in a good 
hand ; and yet I will attend your Lordship (after to- 
morrow's business, and to-morrow ended, which I know 
will be wearisome to you) to know your further pleasure : 

16. Bacon to Cecil, Feb. 10, 1606, S. P. O. 



150 FRANCIS BACON. 

VII. 16. and so in all humbleness I rest at your Lordship's honour- 

able commands more your ever bounden 
1606. „ -o 

F. Bacon. 

Mar. 11. 17. After warm debates in the Lower House a bill goes up 
to the throne for two subsidies and four fifteenths, payable 
in eighteen months. It is not enough. Hitchara, member 
for Lyme, a patriotic fighting town on the Dorset coast, 
proposes in committee a second grant of two subsidies, 
four in all. A dozen members rise at once. Peake will 
hear no more about the royal debts. Holt declares the 
proposition of Hitcham dangerous. Paddye will tell the 
King that even kings must not do wrong. Noy de- 
claims against spoiling the poor to gorge the rich. Dyer 
and Holcroft hint that more than once demands like 
these have been met by the cry, To arms ! But the 
warmest speaker is Lawrence Hyde of West Hatch, 
member for Marlborough. Courtiers shrink from an 
unequal contest. Sir Edward Hoby, an observant poli- 
tician, friendly to his kinsman Cecil and the court, notes 
how poor a figure the King's official friends make in that 
masculine and stormy House. 

Mar. 1.8. 18. Bacon starts to the front. In the midst of a noisy 
sitting of the committee, word comes down from Whitehall 
that James will not wait — that the bill must be passed, 
or the undutiful members shall feel his ire. Such words 
—now frequent — make the King odious and contemptible. 
A storm sets in ; the members fling back threat for threat ; 
the bill is lost. 

17. Hoby to Edmonds, Mar. 7, 1606 ; Cecil to Earl of Mar, Mar. 9, 
1606, S. P. 0. ; Com. Jour., i. 281-84. 

18. Bacon to Cecil, Mar. 22, 1606, S. P. O. ; Com. Jour., i. 288 ; Jonson's 
Epigrams, 41 ; A Proclamation touching a Seditious Rumour, Mar. 22, 1606. 



1606. 



BILL OF SUPPLY. 151 

This scene takes place on Tuesday. On Thursday the yjj. 18. 
committee meets again; the King has not accepted his 
defeat, nor will the Commons enlarge their vote. Saturday 
brings no change of mood. On Monday the committee Mar. 22. 
must report to the House ; and Bacon, who has been 
made reporter, will have to report against his own con- 
victions of what is best for the country and the Crown. He 
sees the committee sullen, almost savage. Monday is the 
anniversary of the King's accession, yet no one rises to 
propose a holiday. 

Fagged with work, he must ride down to Gorhambury 
for a day of rest. He does not wish to appear as if flying 
from his post, so he takes up his pen and writes : 

Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury. 

This Saturday, the 22nd of March, 1606. 

It may please youe good Lokdship, 

I purpose upon promise rather than business to 
make a step to mj house in the country this afternoon, 
which, because your Lordship may hear otherwise, and 
thereupon conceive any doubt of my return to the pur- 
suance of the King's business, I thought it concerned me 
to give your Lordship an account that I purpose (if I live) 
to be there to-morrow in the evening, and so to report the 
subsidy on Monday morning ; which, though it be a day of 
triumph, yet I hear of no adjournment, and therefore the 
House must sit. But if, in regard of the King's servants' 
attendance, your Lordship conceive doubt the House will 
not be well filled that day, I humbly pray your Lordship I 
may receive your direction for the forbearing to enter into 
the matter that day. I doubt not the success, if those 
attend that should. So I rest, in all humbleness, at your 

Lordship's honourable commands, 

r F. Bacon. 



152 



FKANCIS BACON. 



VII. 18. 

1606. 
Mar. 22. 



All hour after this note is penned a rumour rises, none 
knows how, that the King is dead. Some say he has been 
shot, some stabbed, some smothered in his bed. No one 
asks where the King is; all agree that he is killed. 
Members rush to the council, to the city : but the minis- 
ters, the aldermen, know as little as themselves. Some 
spur for Theobalds, some for Eoyston. London yields itself 
to the wildest terrors. Hundreds of men concerned in the 
Powder Plot are still at large. Garnet is still unhung ; 
the priests are sworn to have blood for blood ; the Jesuits, 
it is said, have threatened to burn London to ashes, to 
massacre all the Protestants, should that shining example 
of Christian virtue come to harm. Citizens bar their doors 
and swing on their Toledo blades. 

A horseman, Sir Herbert Crofts, dashes into Palace 
Yard. He has seen the King! The King is safe, and 
near the town. Fear now mutinies into joy. Bells laugh 
over London roofs, crowds ride in procession to meet their 
Prince. If he is safe, the realm is safe. The Peers and 
Commons go to Whitehall. Ben Jonson bursts into music. 
As night comes down, the streets start out with fire, and 
the taverns of Fleet-street and Cheapside roar with patriotic 
songs. 



Mar. 25. 19. Sunday and Monday pass in rejoicings and recep- 
tions. Tuesday brings up Bacon. He has not, he tells the 
House of Commons, drawn a word-for-word report from the 
committee, for his soul is shaken with too much fear and joy* 
What, he cries, are a few debts to the exultation now 
straining every loyal heart ? These debts are less the King's 
than the late Queen's. The Queen made war, the country 



19. Com. Jour., i. 286, 299 ; Cecil to Wotton, Mar. 19, June 18, 1606, 
S. P. O. ; Statutes 3 Jacobi, c. 26. 



_ SUBSIDY GRANTED. 153 

must repair the ravages of war. Eeparation costs money. VII. 19. 

The Crown debts, too, must be paid in full, next year if 

not this year ; and why prefer a vote one session to a vote M ' 

another session ? The House can name its time ; but he 

says, Vote to-day ! In that rapturous and sacred moment, 

when a great alarm has pressed heart to heart, and made 

the whole nation one, he calls on the gentlemen of 

England to crown their own happy work by voting the 

subsidies necessary to support the power of the country, the 

independence of the Crown. 

His eloquence -bears away the House. Hyde fronts the 
stream ; but the ticle has turned towards Whitehall, and 
he strives against genius and enthusiasm, if manfully yet 
in vain. A bill for another subsidy is passed. 

20. In the flush of this triumph, with his fame now May 6 - 
fixed, and with a great place, won by himself, not tossed 
to him by a patron, within reach of his hand (not, as Lord 
Campbell says, when he is poor and down in the summer 
of the Queen's death), he begs the lady of his love to 
name her day. Three years ago they were pledged to 
each other ; he could have made her Lady Bacon then, or 
at any time since then ; but he has hoped to give to his 
bride a more settled fortune and a more illustrious name. 
Kenown beyond the dreams of woman he can give her. 
Nor is he poor in those worldly gifts which girls are taught 
to covet even more than character and fame. Besides the 
grants bestowed upon him by Elizabeth, the reversion in 
the Star Chamber (not yet fallen in), and the leases of Chel- 
tenham and Charlton Kings, of the Pitts and Twickenham 

20. Bacon to Egerton, Tanner MSS. 251, fol. 38 b; Rawley's Resusci- 
tatio, 41 ; Domestic Papers, James I., xix. 33 ; Heath's Preface, Bacon's 
Works, vii. 576. 



154 FRANCIS BACON. 

VII. 20. Park, the death of poor Anthony (dead of the vices and 
excesses caught from his noble friend) has given him Gorham- 
' bury and the lands about it, where he now lives when not 
at Gray's Inn, and where, in after years, he will build 
Yerulam House by the pond, taking his house, as he says, 
to the water, when the water will no longer flow to his 
house. More than all, the patent of Solicitor-General may 
be now sealed to him any day or week, a post of not less 
value than three or four thousand pounds a-year, with 
openings to higher office and greater pay, to the Privy 
Council, the Peerage, and the Seals. He is rich, too, 
in genius and in noble friends. If Cecil plays with him 
fast and loose, the Lord Chancellor pushes his fortunes 
at the bar, and Lady Egerton smooths his suit with 
the young beauty and with her domineering kin. Sir 
John is in high spirits. True, the bill to exempt the 
four shires from Lord Zouch's jurisdiction has been dropped 
by the Lords ; but the King has assured Sir Herbert 
Crofts with his own lips that right shall be done ; and the 
loyal country gentleman believes that when a prince pro- 
mises to do right he will of course maintain his word. 
The day is named ; the tenth of May. 

May 10. 21. By help of Sir Dudley Carleton we may look upon 
the pleasant scene, upon the pretty bride, the jovial knight, 
the romping girls, and the merry company, as through a 
glass. Feathers and lace light up the rooms in the Strand. 
Cecil has been warmly urged to come over from Salisbury 
House. Three of his gentlemen, Sir Walter Cope, Sir 
Baptist Hicks, and Sir Hugh Beeston, hard drinkers and 
men about town, strut over in his stead, flaunting in their 

21, Carleton to Chamberlain, May 11, 1606, S. P. O. ; Bacon's Will ; 
Spedding's Bacon, i. 8. 



HIS MAKEIAGE. 155 

swords and plumes ; yet the prodigal bridegroom, sump- VII. 21. 
tuous in "his tastes as in his genius, clad in a suit of — 
Genoese velvet, purple from cap to shoe, outbraves them 1606. 
all The bride, too, is richly dight ; her whole dowry seeming ay 
to be piled up on her in cloth of silver and ornaments 
of gold. The wedding rite is performed at St. Mary- 
lebone chapel, two miles from the Strand, among the lanes 
and suburbs winding towards the foot of Hampstead Hill. 
Who that is blessed with any share of sympathy or poetry 
cannot see how that glad and shining party ride to the 
rural church on that sunny tenth of May ? how the girls 
will laugh and Sir John will joke, as they wind through 
lanes now white with thorn and the bloom of pears ; how 
the bridesmaids scatter rosemary and the groomsmen 
struggle for the kiss ? Who cannot imagine that 
dinner in the Strand, though the hunchback Earl of 
Salisbury has not come over to Sir John's lodging to taste 
the cheer or kiss the bride ? We know that the wit is 
good, for Bacon is there ; we may trust Sir John for the 
quality of his wine. 

Alice brings to her husband two hundred and twenty 
pounds a-year, with a further claim, on her mother's 
death, of one hundred and forty pounds a-year. As 
Lady Pakington long outlived Bacon, that increase never 
came into his hands. Two hundred and twenty pounds 
a-year is his wife's whole fortune. What is not spent in 
lace and satins for her bridal dress, he allows her to invest 
for her separate use. From his own estate he settles on 
her five hundred pounds a-year. 

Now, in what sense can a marriage in which there seems 
to be a good deal of love, and in which there certainly is 
no great flush of money, be called, on Bacon's side, a 
mercenary match ? 



156 FRANCIS BACON. 

VII. 22. 22. A slight more galling than has yet been put on 
— him awaits the close of his honeymoon. Only a few days 
1606. after his marriage to Alice, Sir Francis Gawdy of the 
June. Common Pleas, stricken with apoplexy, is removed from 
his chambers at Serjeants' Inn to Easton Hall, where 
he soon after dies. Coke goes up to the bench, and 
Doderidge, the Solicitor-General, ought by the custom of 
the law to follow Coke, leaving the post of Solicitor void. 
But Sir Francis Gawdy having been a partizan of the 
Essex faction, and his daughter married to the son of Lady 
Eich, Cecil, either anxious not to offend that powerful 
faction, which he has made his own by a double contract 
of marriage, or doubtful of his cousin's subserviency in 
office, sets aside the usual order of promotion at the bar, and 
July 4. raises Sir Henry Hobart, his obscure Attorney of the Court 
of Wards, over Doderidge's as well as over Bacon's head, 
Oct. to the high place of Attorney-General. Bacon complains 
to Egerton and Cecil of the insult even more than the 
wrong of such a trick. The Lord Chancellor, who sees 
the error made by the government in alienating the most 
powerful man in the House of Commons, proposes to heal 
the wound by asking Sir John Doderidge to yield his 
patent to Bacon, taking in exchange the place of King's 
Serjeant, together with a promise of the first seat that 
shall fall vacant in the "King's Bench. To this Sir John 
and Cecil both object. 

Xov. 23. When Parliament meets in November to discuss the 

Bill of Union, Bacon stands back. The King has chosen 

22. Foss's Judges of England, vi. 158, 306, 329; Chron. Jurid. 181; 
Montagu, v. 297 ; Council Reg., Oct. 14, 1606. 

23. Carleton to Chamberlain, Dec. 18, 1606, S. P.O.; Foster to Mathews, 
Feb. 16, 1607, S. P. O. ; Com. Jour., i. 314, 333 ; Lane's Reports in the 
Court of Exchequer, 22, 31 ; M'Crie's Life of Melville, ii. 234. 



THE SCOTS IN LONDON. 157 

his Attorney; let the new Attorney fight the King's VII. 23. 
battle. The adversaries to be met are bold and many. — 
During the recess Cecil has imposed on the country a Book 
of Kates, pretending that taxes may be lawfully laid in 
the King's ports at the King's pleasure. John Bates, a 
merchant trading with Venice, resisting a tax unsanctioned 
by the House of Commons, has been condemned in the 
Court of Exchequer ; but this condemnation of Bates 
rousing a nation of taxpayers, from every port into which 
ships can float come protests against Sir Thomas Fleming's 
reading of the law. Beyond the Tweed, too, people are 
mutinous to the point of war; for the countrymen of 
Andrew Melville begin to suspect the King of a design 
against the Kirk, and Melville himself, lured by a false 
pretence from St. Andrew's to London, has been provoked 
into an indiscretion, and clapped in the Tower. 

Under such crosses, the Bill on Union fares but ill. 
Fuller, the bilious representative of London, flies at 
the Scots. The Scots in London are in the highest de- 
gree unpopular. Lax in morals and in taste, they will 
take the highest place at table, they will drink out of 
anybody's can, they will kiss the hostess or her buxom 
maid without saying " By your leave." Brawls fret the 
taverns which, they haunt; pasquins hiss against them 
from the stage. Such broils distract the poor King, who sees 
no way to put them down save by commanding Popham 
to whip and pillory the rogues who beat his countrymen 
and friends. Three great poets, Jonson, Chapman, and 
Marston, go to jail for a harmless jest against these Scots. 
Such acts of rigour make the name of Union hateful to 
the public ear. 

Hobart goes to the wall. James now sees that the battle Dec. 
is not to the weak nor the race to the slow. Bacon has only 



158 FKANCIS BACON. 

VII. 23. to hold his tongue and make his terms. Alarmed lest 

— the Bill of Union may be rejected by an overwhelming 

vote, Cecil suddenly adjourns the House. He must get 
Dgc 

strength. The plan proposed by Egerton for making 

Doderidge a King's Serjeant, Bacon the Solicitor-General, 

is revived. Pressed on all sides, here by the Lord Chancellor, 

there by a mutinous House of Commons, Cecil at length 

yields to his cousin's claim, Sir John Doderidge bows his 

neck, and when Parliament meets after the Christmas 

holidays Bacon holds in his pocket a written engagement 

for the Solicitor's place. 

1607. 24. The Bill of Union, drawn by Egerton, consists of 

Feb. 14. f our parts : hostile laws, border laws, laws of commerce, 
laws of navigation. Three of these parts present no diffi- 
culties to the House of Commons. Statutes which forbid 
a Scot to pass the Tweed, which fill the dales of Ettrick 
and Yarrow with feud and slaughter, which prohibit the sale 
of English wool in Scotland and of Scottish furs in England, 
find no advocates. All the old barbarous laws are at once 
annulled. But the knights and burgesses resist the King's 
design of naturalizing the whole Scottish population. 

Nicholas Fuller reopens the debate. A union of these 
two countries, says the uncivil member for London, would 
be a marriage of the rich with the poor, the strong with the 
weak. With the pardonable pride of a London burgess he 
points to the arts, the industry, and wealth of England, to its 
orchards swelling with fruit, its pastures fat with kine, its 
waters white with sails, to its thriving people, abundant agri- 
culture, inexhaustible fisheries, woods, and mines. With all 
these riches he contrasts a land of crags and storms, peopled 
by a race of men rude as their climate, poor in resources 

24. Com. Jour., i. 333-337 ; Lords' Jour., ii. 469, 472 ; Statutes, 4 Jac. c. 1. 



1607. 
Feb. 14. 



DEBATE ON UNION BILL. 159 

and in genius, a nation with pedlars for merchants, and VII. 24 
two or three rotten hoys for a fleet. Such countries, he 
contends, are best apart. What man in his senses, having 
two estates divided by a hedge, one fruitful, one waste, will 
break clown his fence and let the cattle stray from the waste 
into garden and corn-field? Will any one mingle two 
swarms of bees ? why then two hostile swarms of men ? 
England is bare as the land round Bethel ; so that nature 
and God call out to separate the nations, as Lot chose the 
left hand, Abraham the right. He denies that the King's 
accession has changed the relations of the Saxon to the 
Scot : and sits down with demanding whether, if Mary had 
borne a son to Philip, that son being heir to his father's 
crowns, an English Parliament would have naturalized the 
people of Sicily and Spain ? 

25. The speech makes a deep impression. Fuller speaks 
to men convinced ; men sore from daily wrongs and insults. 
Bacon, rising to reply, begins with that shower of image Feb. 17. 
and illustration which his experience tells him is never 
lost on a learned and poetic House. He begs his hearers 
to forget all private feuds, to raise their minds to questions 
of the highest state ; not as merchants dealing with mean 
affairs, but as judges and kings charged with the weal of 
empires. Glancing in scorn at Fuller, he passes with his 
light laugh the moral of that tale of Abraham and Lot, a 
parting cursed with a cruel war and a long captivity, to 
his illustration of the fence. The King, Bacon says, threw 
down the fence when he crossed the Tweed ; yet the flock 
of Scots has not yet followed through the rent. Proud 
and lavish, doting on dress and show, the Scottish gentle- 

25. Speech by Sir Francis Bacon in the House of Commons concerning 
the Naturalization of the Scots, 1641 ; Wilson, 37. 



160 FKANCIS BACON. 

VII. 25. man will rather starve at home than betray his poverty 
2 abroad. The Eoman commons fought for the right to 
name Plebeian consuls, and, when they had won the right, 
voted for Patricians : so with the Scots : they claim the 
privilege of coming into England; yield the right, and 
they will not come. It is said the land is full. London, 
he grants, is thronged and swollen : not the open downs 
and plains. France counts more people to the mile. 
Flanders, Italy, Germany exceed us in population. Are 
there no English towns decayed ? Are there no ancient 
cities heaps of stones ? Why, marsh grows on the pasture, 
• pasture on the plough-land. Wastes increase ; the soil 
cries loud for hands to sow the corn and reap the harvest. 
But this bill for naturalizing the Scots stands on a far 
higher ground. A people, warlike as the Eomans and as 
ourselves, a race of men who, like wild horses, are hard to 
control because lusty with blood and youth, offer to be 
one people with us, friends in the day of peace, allies in 
the day of strife. Take from the Scots this brand of aliens, 
they will stand by our side, bulwarks and defenders against 
the world. Should you shut them out from England, 
treating them as strangers and enemies, they may prove 
to you what the Pisans proved to Florence, the Latins to 
Rome. In our ancient wars the invader found the gates 
of our kingdom open. France could enter through Scot- 
land, Spain through Ireland. Pass this bill, we close our 
gates. No minor argument deserves a thought. Union 
is strength, union is defence. You object that the Scots 
are poor. Are not strong limbs better than riches ? Has 
not Solon told us the man of iron is master of the 
man of gold? Does not Macchiavelli pour his scorn at 
the false proverb which makes money the sinews of war ? 
The true sinews of war are the sinews of valiant men. 



1607. 
Feb. 



DEBATE ON UNION BILL. 161 

Leave, gentlemen, to the Spaniards, the delusion that a VII. 25. 
heap of gold, filched from a feeble race, can give the 
dominion of the world. If union with the Scots will not 
bring riches to our doors, it will bring safety to our frontiers, 
will give us strength at sea and reserves on land. Alone 
we have borne our flag aloft; with Scotland united in 
arms, with Ireland settled and at peace, with our war fleets 
on every sea, our merchants in every port, we shall become 
the first power in the world. Warmed with such glorious 
hopes, how can the gentleman of England stand upon 
terms and audits — upon mine and thine — upon he knows 
not what ! 

26. The House rings with applause. Cecil sends a copy 
of this speech to James ; and in the midst of his trials, it 
is some pleasure to the poor pedant to see what splendid 
things a practical statesman and philosopher can say for 
his favourite scheme. 

If the Union is postponed until another generation, its 
eloquent advocate gains his place. 

Lord Campbell assumes that Egerton's plan for Bacon's June 25. 
promotion failed, and that he rose into office through the 
changes on Popham's death. These are mistakes. Fleming 
succeeds Popham, Tanfield succeeds Fleming, and Hobart 
remains Attorney. To create a vacancy, Doderidge has 
to take the coif, when Bacon's commission as the King's 
Solicitor-General immediately passes the Seal. 

26. Cecil to Lake, April 16, 1607, S. P. O. ; Chron. Jurid., 183. 



162 FKANCIS BACON. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 



SOLICITOK-GENEKAL. 



VIII. 1. 1. On the twenty-fifth of June, 1607, at the age of forty-six 
years and five months, Bacon entered office. During the 
six years which he acted as Solicitor-General, Lord Camp- 
bell has found no flaw in his practice — abstinence which is 
due in part to the circumstance that for these six years, 
with the unimportant exception of the trial of Lord San- 
quhair for murder, Lord Campbell has overlooked every 
fact in Bacon's life. If there is nothing to relate, there 
may be nothing to condemn. 

Yet there is much in the story of these six years — 
years in which he wrought at the Essays and shaped out 
the New Philosophy ; in which, to his personal disquiet, he 
resisted the design of Sir John Pakington and his friends to 
abridge the authority of the Court of Wales ; in which, at 
his personal risk and loss, he aided to plant Virginia and 
Ulster ; in which, against his professional interests, he en- 
gaged in many a good fight for popular liberties against 
the Crown — which men of sense and spirit will wish for the 

sake of example to keep alive. 
1608. 
April. 2. Cecil is now at his height of fortune. On the sudden, 

dramatic death of Dorset, the most daring of poets, the 

most prudent of financiers, Cecil takes the White Staff 

without parting from his office as premier Secretary of 

1. Campbell's Life of Bacon, iii. 56. 

2. Eure to Cecil, April 27, 1608, S. P. O. ; Chamberlain to Carleton, 
July 7, 1608 ; Provisoes between Salisbury and Morral, Dec. 1608, S. P. 0„ 



POSITION OF CECIL. 163 

State. He is now nearly all in all. Except in naval VIII. £ 
affairs, in which Nottingham's great age and eminence — 
as a sailor forbid all meddling, no department of the 
public service, home or foreign, trade, police, finances, law, 
religion, war and peace, escapes the quick eye and con- 
trolling hand of the tiny hunchback. Every one serves 
him, every enterprise enriches him. He builds a new palace 
at Hatfield, a new Exchange in the Strand. Countesses 
intrigue for him. His son marries a Howard, his daughter 
a Clifford. Ambassadors start for Italy, less to see Doges 
and Grand Dukes than to pick up pictures and statues, 
bronzes and hangings for his vast establishment at Hatfield 
Chace. Gardeners travel through France to buy up for 
him mulberries and vines. Salisbury House on the Thames 
almost rivals the luxurious villas of the Eoman Cardinals 
in wealth of tapestry, of furniture and plate. Yet under 
this blaze of worldly success Cecil is the most miserable May. 
of men. Friends grudge his rise ; his health is broken ; 
the reins which his ambition draws into his hands are 
beyond the powers of a man to grasp ; and the vigour of 
his frame, wasted by years of voluptuous licence, fails him 
at a moment when the strain on his faculties is at the full. 

3. In this strain of powers no longer fresh, in this soli- Aug. 
tude of severed friendships, in this misery of broken health, 
Cecil turns to his hale, bright cousin, not for the com- 
panionship he will not give, but for the hints and helps a 
lawyer has to sell. Bacon does not love him. More than 
Coke, Cecil has been to him a cross and grief; for while 
he can fight with his own weapons the coarse and spite- 
ful foe, his gentle heart supplies no armoury of defence 
against the cold and veiled contempt of his perfidious 

3, Bacon to Cecil, Aug. 24, 1608, S P. O, ; Essays, xliv. 

M 2 



1608. 



164 FRANCIS BACON. 

VIII. 3. friend. When this agonized spectre of success invites him 
to more frequent consultations on affairs, instead of gliding 
into that kindly and gracious correspondence which is the 
°' habit of his pen, he chooses to stand with him on the 
ceremonial footing of good manners and the duties of his 
place. While writing notes of business like the following, 
Bacon may have in mind the day, not long ago, when the 
Earl of Salisbury declined to cross the Strand to taste the 
hypocras and kiss the bride : 

Bacon to Salisbury. 
Aug. 24. This Wednesday, the 24th of Aug. 1608. 

It may please your Lordship, 

I had cast not to fail to attend your Lordship to- 
morrow, which was the day your Lordship had appointed 
for your being at London ; but having this day about noon 
received knowledge of your being at Kensington, and that 
it had pleased your Lordship to send for me to dine with 
you as this day, I made what diligence I could to return 
from Gorhambury ; and though I came time enough to 
have waited on your Lordship this evening, yet, your Lord- 
ship being in so good a place to refresh yourself, and 
though it please your Lordship to use me as a kinsman, 
yet I cannot leave behind me the shape of a Solicitor. 
I thought it better manners to stay till to-morrow, what 
time I will wait on you. And at all times rest, your Lord- 
ship's most humble and bounden, 

F. Bacon. 

To the last hour of Cecil's life, Bacon keeps this cere- 
monial style. No kindness flows between the cousins; 
they talk of business, not of love ; and when Cecil passes 
to his rest, a new edition of the Essays, under cover of a 



THE COURT OF WALES. 165 

treatise on Deformity, paints in true and bold lines, but VIII. 3. 

without one harsh touch, the genius of the man. 

& 1608. 

4. The feud of the four shires is again ablaze. Sir John ■^ ov * 
Pakington has found that the King's promise to do right 
has borne no fruit for him or for his friends sweeter than 
the sour crabs of his own orchard. Lord Zouch is gone, and 
Lord Eure, with a new set of standing orders, reigns in his 
stead ; yet the Court of Wales, under this new President, 
is no less warm to maintain its right than under the old. 
Indeed, in the belief of wise and practical men, the time 
has not arrived for either abolishing the court or inter- 
fering with its powers. 

This Court of Wales and the Welsh Border, like the 
more important Court of the North, was erected as a defence 
against Papist missionaries and Papist plots. The gentry of 
Wales and of the Border shires were mainly Koman Catholic ; 
and every villain who in Elizabeth's time disturbed the 
public peace, and brought shame or punishment on the mem- 
bers of the Koman Church, reckoned on the aid of an army 
of fighting and fanatical Sir Hughs. The Court of Wales 
kept them under. The poor, who wished to smelt the iron- 
ore, to feed their sheep, to dredge their streams for pearls, 
and net their bays for fish, in peace, blessed it for this 
boon, and not for this alone ; for this royal Court gave 
them such cheap and speedy justice as could not be ob- 
tained in counties governed by the ordinary courts under 
the common law. If prompt and stern, its rule was na- 
tional in spirit, popular in aim. The abuses which crept in 
a few years later, and which caused its fall, were of a kind 
unknown in the days of Elizabeth, and only just beginning 

4. Cott. MSS. Vit., c. 1 ; Dom. Papers of James the First, xxviii. 48, 
xxxii. 13, 14, S. P. O. ; Heath's Preface, Bacon's Works, vii. 584. 



1608. 
Nov. 



166 FRANCIS BACON. 

VIII. 4. to be known in the days of James. Charles the First gave 
a new aim to the Court, perverting the power created by 
Henry and fostered by Elizabeth as a defence of the national 
sentiment and national faith, into instruments of attack upon 
them ; then, indeed, but not till then, the Court of Wales 
fell under public odium, and was swept away in the re- 
volutionary storm. But the men who destroyed it under 
Charles were not the men who complained of it under 
James. The Crofts, Hoptons, Pakingtons, Sandys, Lees, 
Sheldons, Blounts, and Corbets who contested the authority 
of Lord Eure, were afterwards no less hot on the other 
side, voting and fighting against popular rights under 
Charles. 

5. To Sir John, and to country gentlemen like Sir 
John, the Court of Wales is not so much a national 
grievance as a personal offence. It takes from his place 
and dignity ; and he instructs his under-sheriff to refuse 
obedience to the precepts of such a Court. The gentry of 
Herefordshire are up in arms ; but people in the southern 
and middle shires suspect, as proves to be the fact ere long, 
that these loud cries against the Court of Wales come 
mainly from a wish on the part of a few magistrates to 
get rid of a popular and successful local power which curbs 
for the common good their private feuds, and keeps a bright 
eye on the movements of their missionary priests. Many 
of those who cry loudest against the Court are said to find 
reasons for their discontent in the commands of their con- 
fessors. Most of them are Papists, open or concealed. 
Sir Herbert Crofts, long passing for a firm Protestant, 
has within the year avowed himself a convert to the 

5. Eure to Salisbury, Jan. 26, 1608, S. P. O. ; Eure to Pakiugton, Jan. 3, 
1608, S. P. O. ; Pakington to Eure, Jan. 17, 1608, S. P. 0. ; Council Peg., 
Nov. 2, 1613. 



1608. 

Nov. 



THE COURT OF WALES. 167 

Church of Kome. Sir John adheres to the Church, but VIII. 5. 
his near kinsman, Humphrey Pakington, is an active and 
dangerous recusant, whose name is constantly before the 
Privy Council. Lord Eure complains to Sir John. Sir 
John flatly refuses to obey his precepts. Eure writes to 
Lord Salisbury that his powers must be preserved in full, 
or he shall feel it a duty to resign his place. 

6. Cecil consults Bacon, now become chief adviser of 
the Crown in all affairs of law, and finds his opinion on the 
jurisdiction of the Court of Wales, as in most things, the 
reverse of that pronounced by Coke. Coke is against Eure. 
A dry, stiff formalist, wanting the warmth of heart, the 
large round of sympathies which enable his illustrious rival 
at the bar to see into political questions with the eyes of 
a poet and a statesman, Coke can only treat a constituted 
court as a thing of words, dates, readings, and decisions ; 
not as a living fact in close relation to other living 
facts, and having in itself the germs of growth and change. 
A point of law is taken for debate before the judges, when 
Bacon appears in opposition to Sir John and his friends, 
and pronounces that argument on The Jurisdiction of the 
Marches which is printed in his works. After this hearing 
a proclamation from the King announces the confirmed 
authority of the Court of Wales ; but the magistrates of 
the four shires continue their opposition, and the case 
drags on for nine or ten years, until these magistrates 
drop the agitation in presence of more solemn facts. 

7. In no History of America, in no Life of Bacon, have I 1609. 
found one word to connect him with the plantation of that May 23. 

6. Dom. Papers James the First, xxxvii. 53, 54, 56, S. P. O. ; Bacon's 
Works, vii. 587 ; Proclamation for the Continuance of the Authority and 
Jurisdiction of the Presidencies of the North and of Wales [Nov. 1608]. 

7. Virginia Charter Book, May 23, 1609, S. P. O. 



168 FBANCIS BACON. 

VIII. 7. great Kepublic. Yet, like Kaleigh and Delaware, he takes 
— an active share in the labours, a conspicuous part in the 
sacrifices, through which the foundations of Virginia and 
a ^ ' the Carolinas are first laid. 

Like men of far less note, who have received far higher 
honours in America, Bacon pays his money into the great 
Company, and takes office in its management as one of 
the Council. To his other glories, therefore, must be 
added that of a Founder of New States. 

y 

8. The causes which lead Bacon, with most of his par- 
liamentary and patriotic colleagues, to join the Virginia 
Company with person and purse, are the same causes 
which move him to fight for the Union and the Subsidies. 
The plantation of Virginia is a branch of the great contest 
with Spain. 

England and Spain have long been rivals in plantation 
and discovery. Neither may claim for itself the wide 
continents of America by the happy exercise of native 
genius ; for while a Genoese gave the south to Spain, 
a Venetian conferred the north on England. Frobisher 
and Gilbert followed in the wake of Cabot, though in a 
different spirit and working to another end. Inflamed by 
tales of the Incas' shining palaces, Frobisher went forth 
in search of mines and gold; Gilbert, who revived the 
spirit of the Great Discoverer, sailed to the far west and 
gallantly gave his life, not for the rewards of wealth and 
fame, but solely in the hope of extending English power 
and of converting souls to God. When he sank in the 
Golden Hind he left these tasks to his young half-brother, 



8. Fernando Gorges' Brief Eelation, 3, 10 ; Charters of Virginia, April 
10, 1606, Mar. 9, 1607, May 23, 1609, S. P. O. 



1609. 
May 23. 



THE AMERICAN PLANTATIONS. 169 

Sir Walter Kaleigh, who lived to be the true Founder of VIII. 8. 
the United States. 

Kaleigh, trained to politics under the eyes of Elizabeth, 
saw that the battle-field of the two maritime powers lay 
in the waters and along the shores of the New World. 
Europe was peopled. But the prairie and the savannah, 
the forest and the lake of America were virgin fields, the 
homes of an expanding race, the seats of a mighty empire 
in the time to come. Who shall occupy this splendid 
scene ? Shall the New World become mainly English or 
mainly Spanish ? Shall the original type and seed of her 
institutions be a Free Press or a Holy Office ? Such ques- 
tions throb and thrill in the veins of Englishmen of every 
rank. 

9. They answer with one voice. While the Queen 
lived and Ealeigh was free to spend his genius and 
his fortune on the work of discovery and plantation, it 
never flagged. But when James came in, and, with 
his dread of heroism and adventure, flung the explorer 
of Guiana, the founder of Virginia, into the Tower, as a 
first step towards receiving the Spanish ambassador Ve- 
lasco with proposals for a shameful peace, the old English 
spirit appeared to droop. Velasco for a time said little of Vir- 
ginia, for the fires of the Armada and of Nieuport burned 
in many hearts ; but Lerma, in his letters to the King, re- 
served an exclusive right of the Spanish crown, based on a 
Papal bull, to all the soil of the New World from Canada 
to Cape Horn. When his agents in London found their 
season they made this claim; when his admirals in the 

9. Smith's History, 88, 90 ; Nova Britannia, 1609 ; Jourdan's Discovery 
of the Barmudas, otherwise called the Isle of Divels, by Sir T. Gates, Sir 
G. Sornmers, and Captain Newport, with divers others, 1610. 



1609. 
May 23. 



170 FRANCIS BACON. 

VIII. 9. Gulf of Mexico felt their strength they chased the English 
from those seas as pirates. If the Spanish cruisers 
caught an English crew, they either slung them to the 
yard-arm or sent them prisoners to Spain. 

Euled by a corporation of adventurers, tormented by 
these ^Spanish cruisers, unprotected by the royal fleets, the 
settlement on the James Eiver falls to grief. A man of 
genius, Captain John Smith, more than once snatches it 
from the jaws of death. But the planters fight among 
themselves, depose Smith from power, and send back 
nothing to the Company save miserable complaints and 
heaps of glittering dust. The colony is on the verge of 
failure, when a threat from Spain to descend on the 
Chesapeake shoots new life into the drooping cause. 
All generous spirits rush to the defence of Virginia. 
Bacon joins the Company with purse and voice. Mont- 
gomery, Pembroke, and Southampton, the noble friends 
of Shakespeare, join it. Nor is the Church less zealous. 
The ardent Abbott, the learned Hackluyt, lend their 
names. Money pours in. A fleet, commanded by Gates 
and Somers, sails from the Thames, to meet on its voyage 
at sea those singular and poetic storms and trials which 
add the Bermudas to our empire and The Tempest to our 
literature. 

10. One hundred and seventy-five years after Walter 
Baleigh laid down his life in Palace Yard for America, his 
illustrious blood paid for by Gondomar in Spanish gold, the 
citizens of Carolina, framing for themselves a free consti- 
tution, remembered the man to whose genius they owed 
their existence as a state. They called the capital of their 
country Kaleigh. The United States can also claim among 

10. Statutes of North Carolina, c. xiv. 



1609. 
May 23. 



LIST OF GRIEVANCES. 171 

their muster-roll of Founders the not less noble name VIII 
of Francis Bacon. Will the day come, when, dropping 10. 
such feeble names as Troy and Syracuse, the people of 
the Great Eepublic will give the august and immortal 
name of Bacon to one of their splendid cities ? 

11. The session of 1610 shows Bacon in a characteristic 1610. 
scene. Bound by the traditions of his place to support April, 
the King's measures in the House of Commons, when the 
session opens, with a freedom which surprises the King's 
friends, and which Coke and Doderidge have never dared 
to take, he both speaks and votes against the superior 
law-officers of the Crown. 

The List of Grievances has at length been shaped 
into a proposition, and laid before the House. This 
Great Contract, as the people call it, offers to buy from the 
Crown, either for a fixed sum of money to be paid down 
or for a yearly rental, certain rights and dues inherited by 
the King from feudal times, which the change of manners 
and the refinements of society have made abominable 
to rich and educated men. Escutage, Knight-service, 
Wardship of the body, Marriage of heirs and of widows, 
Respite of homage, Premier seizin, every knight and squire 
in the land longs to suppress, as things which yield the 
King an uncertain income, but cover themselves with a 
certain shame. A group of feudal tenures which concern 
the dignity of the Crown, such as Serjeantry, Homage, 
Fealty, Wardship of land, and Livery, they propose to 
modify, so as to satisfy just complaints while preserving to 
the King all services of honour and ceremonial rite. Aids 
to the King they limit in amount; suits, heriots, and 
escheats they leave untouched ; monopolies for the sale of 

11. Add. MSS., 11, 695 ; Lords' Journals, ii. 574. 



172 FKANCIS BACON. 

VIII. wines, for the licensing of inns, for the importation of 

11- coal, they abrogate. In lieu of these reliefs, they offer the 

King one hundred thousand pounds a year. 
1610. & r j 

April. 12. At first James will not listen. The terms of such a 
contract touch, he says, his honour. These privileges may 
be of no moment to the Crown ; to part with them may 
neither lower its dignity nor abate its pride; yet why 
should he be asked to part with them ? Elizabeth had them. 
All the Plantagenets, all the Tudors had them. Why 
should the first of the Stuarts strip his Crown of privileges 
held by his predecessors for five hundred years? But 
James is not true to his own folly. To resist a sale of 
the rags and dust of feudal power, if done on the ground 
of conscience, would to many seem respectable, to some 
heroic; but the offer of a hundred thousand pounds a 
year tempts a man dogged by duns to compromise with 
his sense of right. He lends his ear ; he hints his willing- 
ness to treat. Will the Commons give a little more ? Will 
they take a little less ? If so, he will hear them ; if not, 
not. Cecil asks Fleming and Coke to declare whether 
James can lawfully sell the burthens on tenures, yet 
preserve to his Crown the tenures themselves. 

13. The chance of hurting Bacon, who pleads in office, as 
he always spoke when out of office, for the full surrender 
of these feudal dues, is too much for Coke. Their feud has, 
indeed, grown fiercer as they have grown in years, flashing 
out even in the courts of law. " The less you speak of 
your own greatness/' says Bacon in open court, " the more 
I shall think of it, and the more, the less." As Bacon 
contends that a sale of the burthens on tenures is in fact a 

12. Add. MSS., II, 695 ; Com. Jour., i. 419, 420. 

13. Spedding's Bacon, vii. 177 ; Add. MSS., 11, 695. 



DEBATE ON FEUDAL TENURES. 173 

sale of the tenures, Coke answers Cecil that the King may, VIII. 

if it shall please him, sell the burthens, yet keep the 13. 

tenures intact. James therefore sends to tell the Com- — 

mons that he will sell to them for six hundred thousand 1G1 °- 

pounds paid down, and a rental of two hundred thousand ™ 
pounds a year, his rights of marriage, wardship, premier 
seizin, respite of homage and reliefs. 

14. In these debates, the Solicitor-General, brushing away 
the distinctions of Coke and Fleming, urges on the House 
of Commons and on the Crown the wisdom, of abolishing 
these feudal tenures both in name and fact. Tenures in 
capite and by knight-service, he says, have lost their virtue. 
When the Sovereign summoned his liegemen to the field, 
Eeason might have cried — Hold fast all tenures which 
augment the national force ! But the King no longer 
leads his armies in the field or calls his vassals round his 
flag ; war has grown into a science, arms into a profession ; 
if an enemy should appear at Dover or Berwick, no man 
would now wait for the King's tenant to strike. In the 
musters for defence, holders in soccage stand foot to 
foot with holders by knight-service. In feudal ages the 
tenures meant defence ; but the usage and the idea has 
alike gone by; and tenures no longer represent either 
force, honour, or obedience. 

15. Bacon pleads so well that after warm debates the July 23. 
King consents to reduce his demands, the- House of Com- 
mons to raise their price. The two powers draw nearer to 

each other, and a happy resolution seems about to cleanse 
away some of the very worst abuses of the feudal state. 

14. Bacon's Speech, April, 1610 ; Lords' Jour., ii. 580. 

15. King's Proclamation, Dec. 31, 1610; Add. MSS., 11,695; Lords' 
Jour., ii. 666-86 ; Statutes of the Realm, iv. 1207. 



174 FBANCIS BACON. 

VIII. For two hundred thousand pounds a year the Crown 
15. agrees to renounce for ever these feudal rights. 

lfi How this Great Contract comes to an abrupt and 

July 23. ig nomm i° us en d, how King and Commons wrangle over 
the Book of Kates, and how a session that began so pros- 
perously closes in open strife between the people and their 
prince, not a single bill receiving the royal signature, all 
this, though full of constitutional, and even of romantic 
interest, is a tale for the historian of England, not for the 
critic of Bacon's life. 

1612. 16. So long as his kinsman Cecil lives, Bacon sees 

May. no hope of rising in the world. In May, 1612, the 
Earl of Salisbury, Lord Treasurer of England, premier 
Secretary of State, and Master of the Court of Wards, 
worn out by fag of brain not less than by disease of blood, 
dies, and a burst of gladness breaks over court and country 
at the news. His companions of the Privy Council tra- 
duce his fame, his tenants at Hatfield attack his park. Of 
all men living, the cousin he so deeply hurt is the least 
unjust. In an edition of the Essays, now in the press, 
Bacon paints him to the life : every one knows the por- 
trait ; yet no one can pronounce this picture of a small 
shrewd man of the world, a clerk in soul, without a spark 
of fire, a dash of generosity in his nature, unfair or even 
unkind. The spirit of it runs in a famous anecdote. 
" Now tell me truly," says the King, " what think you of 
your cousin that is gone?" "Sir," answers Bacon, 
"since your Majesty charges me, I'll give you such a 
character of him as if I were to write his story. I do 
think he was no fit councillor to make your affairs better. 
But yet he was fit to have kept them from growing worse." 

16. Bacon's Essays, xliv. ; Apophthegms, Works, vii. 175. 



APPLIES FOE THE COURT OF WARDS, 175 

" On my so'l, man ! " says James, " in the first thou VIII. 
speakest like a true man, in the second like a kinsman." 16. 

17. From the day of Cecil's death his prospects, clouded 1612. 
till now, begin to clear. If promotion pauses, it is only May. 
because the crowds of suitors perplex the King. Carr and 
Northampton claim the Treasurer's staff. Everybody begs 

the Court of Wards and Liveries. Sir Thomas Lake, Sir 
Henry Wotton, Sir Kalph Winwood, Sir Henry Neville, 
each aspires to the rank of Secretary of State. The 
patriots put up Bacon's name for this great office, and 
shrewd observers fancy him nigh success. Poor James, 
unable to decide, hankering, though afraid, to make Carr 
his chief minister, puts the Treasury into commission for 
six months, gives the Wards to Carew, and startles the 
gossips of Whitehall by announcing that, instead of em- 
ploying either Bacon or Wotton, Winwood or Lake, he 
means for the future to be his own Secretary of State. 

18. Carew dying suddenly six months after his nomina- Nov. 
tion, Bacon applies for the Court of Wards. His pay 

as Solicitor-General is only seventy pounds a-year. Pro- 
mised for his service to the Crown a place of profit, he 
points *out in a letter to Carr that the Court of Wards is 
one for a lawyer rather than a courtier to hold. 

Bacon to Lord Eochester. 
IT MAY PLEASE YOUK GOOD LoEDSHIP, Nov. 14, 1612. 

This Mastership of the Wards is like a mist — some- 
times it goeth upwards and sometimes it falleth downwards. 
If it go up to great lords, then it is as it was at the first,— 

17. Chamberlain to Carleton, Nov. 26, 1612, S. P. O. 

18. Bacon to Carr, Nov. 14, 1612, S. P. 0. ; Lake to Carleton, Nov. 19, 
1612, Venetian MSS., S. P. O. 



1612 

Nov. 



176 FRANCIS BACON. 

VIII. if it fall down to mean men, then it is as it was at the last. 
18. But neither of these ways concerns me in particular, — but 
if it should in a middle region go to lawyers, then I be- 
seech your Lordship have some care of me. The attorney 
and solicitor are as the King's champions for ciyil business, 
and they had need have some place of rest in their eye for 
their encouragement. The Mastership of the Kolls, which 
was the ordinary place kept for them, is gone from them. 
If this place should go to a lawyer, and not to them, their 
hopes must diminish. Thus I rest, your Lordship's affec- 
tionate, to do you humble service, 

F. Bacon. 

He feels so certain of this suit that he orders the new 
clothes for his servants ; yet the suit fails. He wants the 
Court of Wards and Liveries as a right, and will not buy 
it. Sir Walter Cope, a man of larger fortunes and smaller 
scruples, while Bacon alleges service, tells down his money 
and buys the place. The wags of the Mitre have their 
laugh. " Sir Walter," they say, " has got the Wards, Sir 
Francis the Liveries." 

1613. 19. If he sue without success for the Court of Wards, 

Aug. he is constantly consulted or employed in the most weighty, 

the most delicate business of the Crown. Most conspicuous, 

perhaps, of the cases which now engage his mind is the 

old, old story of Irish broils. 

Of Ireland itself he never speaks but in words of tender- 
ness and grief. With him the green lustrous island is " a 
country blessed with almost all the dowries of nature — 
with rivers, havens, woods, quarries, good soil, temperate 
climate, and a race and generation of men, valiant, hard, 

19. Bacon to Carr, Nov. 14, 1612, S. P. O. 



CHICHESTER'S IRISH GOVERNMENT. 177 

and active, as it is not easy to find such confluence of com- VIII. 

modities, if the hand of man did join with the hand of 19. 

nature; but they severed, — the harp of Ireland is not " — 
strung or attuned to concord." More the pity, thinks its 

generous and sagacious friend ! °* 

20. Sir Arthur Chichester, the wisest, firmest man ever 
sent from England to rule the Celt, — after driving out the 
rebels O'Neile and O'Donnel, crushing O'Dogherty and 
the assassins who ravished and destroyed Derry, — has 
built a new city on Lough Foyle, garrisoned and calmed 
Strabane, Ballyshannon, Omagh, and the forts along 
the lines from Kerry to Inishoan, and peopled with 
the germs of a new race the wastes of Antrim and 
Down, of Londonderry and Coleraine. Strong in his 
genius and in his success, after founding an English state 
in Ulster on the ruins of the great Celtic insurrection, 
he calls a Parliament in Dublin to sanction what has 
been done, and to resume, for the first time in the 
remembrance of living men, a regular mode of civil 
and popular government. For seven years he has ruled 
by the sword. He wishes to lay it down. But blood is 
hot and feuds run high. The Saxon and the Celt, the 
Protestant and the Papist, meet in Dublin, less disposed to 
sit on the same benches and hear each other prate than to 
pluck out the sharp skean and fly at each other's throats. 
At the first meeting they fall to blows. One party says 
Sir John Everard shall be Speaker ; the other, Sir John 
Davis. Everard is in opposition, Davis the Irish Attorney- 
General ; Everard the candidate of the monks, Davis of 

20. An Account of the Right Hon. Sir Arthur Chichester, Lord Belfast, 
Lord Deputy of Ireland ; by Sir Faithful Fortescue : with Notes and a 
Memoir of the Writer by Lord Clermont ; 1858. Ellis's Orig. Letters, 
Third Series, iv. 173. 



178 FKANCIS BACON. 

VIII. the Crown. Chichester can but follow the Imperial law. 

20. Usage good in Westminster must be held good in Dublin. 
Davis must be Speaker. Indeed, the majority elect him. 

. ' But a crowd of men summoned from the Bog of Allen, 
from the banks of Lough S willy, from the wilds of Sligo 
and Mayo, — representatives of the MacOiraghtys and Mac 
Coghlans, of the O'Doghertys, O'Donnels, and O' Con- 
cannons, — who have scarcely ever heard of a precedent, 
have not learned to respect a majority of votes. When 
the Protestants file into the right lobby, instead of 
filing into the left the Roman Catholic members seat 
Everard in the chair. They refuse to move or to be 
counted like a drove of sheep! Davis, voted into the 
chair by a majority of twenty-eight, is taken up to his 
seat by two members, as in the English House of Commons. 
Everard will not stir. Davis plumps into his lap. In 
a wild Irish uproar, Everard, caught by the crowd, is 
thrust out neck and crop. The Celtic members grasp 
their skeans. If Chichester, wise in time, had not pru- 
dently set them in a ring of steel, the members, instead 
of hearing each other's grievances, would have cut each 
other's throats. Such a House of Commons is an im- 
practicable instrument for preserving the peace of Ireland, 
and Chichester dissolves it. On the evening of the row, to 
show his scorn of such brabbles, the Lord Deputy goes 
out to play his usual rubber. 

21. Everard and his friends come over to complain at 
Whitehall. They talk of their wrongs. They object to 
the new boroughs planted by the English ; they require 
that these boroughs shall not be allowed to send represen- 
tatives to an Irish House of Commons ! They whine of 

21. Abbot, Aug. 4, 1613, S. P, O. ; Add. MSS. 19, 402, fol. 37. 



ADVICE CONCERNING IRELAND. 179 

danger to their persons, of a Gunpowder Plot to blow them VIII. 
into the sky. 21. 

The King consults Bacon. Anxious for Parliaments, 
but aware that Parliaments presuppose habits of order 
and discussion, respect for opinion, submission to majorities, 
Bacon gives the King this advice : 

Bacon to James. 

Aug. 13, 1613. 

May it please youe most excellent Majesty, 

I was at my house in the country what time the 
commission and instructions for Ireland were drawn by 
Mr. Attorney, but I was present this day the forenoon, 
when they were read before my Lords and excepted to, 
some points whereof use was made, and some alterations 
followed, but I could not in decency except to so much as 
I thought there might be cause, lest it might be thought a 
humour of contradiction or an effect of emulation, which, I 
thank God, I am not much troubled with, for, so your Ma- 
jesty's business be well done, whosoever be the instrument, 
I rest joyful. But because this is a tender piece of service, 
and that which was well directed by your Majesty's high 
wisdom may be marred in the manage, and that I have 
been so happy as to have my poor service in this business 
of Ireland, which I have minded with all my powers, be- 
cause I thought your estate laboured, graciously accepted 
by your sacred Majesty, I do presume to present to your 
Majesty's remembrance (whom I perceive to be one of the 
most truly politic princes that ever reigned, and the 
greatest height of my poor abilities is but to understand 
you well) some few points in a memorial enclosed which I 
wish to be changed. They tend to this scope principally, 
that I think it safest for your Majesty at this time, hoc 

n 2 



180 FKANCIS BACON. 

VIII. <*gwe* which is to effect that you may hold a parliament in 

21. Ireland with sovereignty, concord, contentment, and mode- 

— rate freedom, and so bind up the wound made without 

clogging the commission with too many other matters. . . . 

u ^' ' whereas these instruments are so marshalled as if the 
grievances were the principal. The grievances which were 
not commended to these messengers from the party in 
Ireland, but slept at least a month after their coming 
hither, and . . . are divers of them of so vulgar a nature 
as they are complained of both in England and Ireland, 
and both now and at all times. For your Majesty to give 
way upon this ground, to so particular an inquiry of all 
these points, I confess I think is unworthy of majesty, for 
they are set down like interrogatories in a suit in law. 
And my fear is they will call up and stir such a number of 
complaints and petitions, which not being possible to be 
satisfied, this commission meant for satisfaction will end in 
murmur. But these things which I write are perhaps but 
my errors and simplicities. Your Majesty's wisdom must 
steer and ballast the ship. So most humbly craving 
pardon, I ever rest your Majesty's most devoted and 
faithful subject and servant, 

Fr. Bacon. 

Government acts on this counsel of maintaining in 
Dublin a firm and inflexible justice. A Parliament meets 
within twelve months, the members of which quarrel indeed 
among themselves, as is only national and natural ; but 
which proves itself as capable of transacting public busi- 
ness as almost any Parliament in Palace Yard. It gives 
peace to Ireland for thirty years. 

For nearly all that is most gracious and noble, most wise 
and foreseeing in the Irish policy of the Crown in this 



MADE ATTOKNEY-GENERAL. 181 

reign, thanks are due, next after Arthur Chichester, to VIII. 

Francis Bacon. Yet Lord Campbell, a statesman and a 21. 

lawyer, has not one word on this theme ! 

J 1613. 

22. Two years of fag and moil cure James of his Oct. 27. 
ambition to be thought the best scribe in Christendom. 
Dissolving the commission of the Treasury, he gives the 

Staff to Northampton. He brings Winwood forward as 
Secretary of State ; but ere passing his commission under 
the Seal, James raises his great competitor for that post 
a step in his profession; Coke going up to the King's 
Bench," Hobart to the Common Pleas, and Bacon to the 
Attorney's place. Coke huffs at the King's Bench, a 
court of higher dignity than the Common Pleas, but of 
fewer fees. James has to interfere. "This is all your 
doing, Mr. Attorney," says the irascible Lord Chief 
Justice; "it is you that have made this great stir." 
With the light laugh that has so often maddened Coke, he 
answers, " Your lordship all this while hath grown in 
breadth; you must needs now grow in height, or you 
will be a monster." 

23. Lord Campbell sees in these promotions, not the Nov. 
natural changes brought about by time, such as every year 
occur at the bar, but a mean trick, a court intrigue, an 
affair of secret letters, of back-stairs interest, in short, a 
dodge and a cheat ! To this reading of events may be 
opposed the judgments of those among Bacon's contempo- 

22. Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 14, 27, 1614, S. P. O. ; Grant Book, 
102 ; Bacon's Apophthegms in Kesuscitatio, 38. 

23. Mem. of Burgesses chosen for more than one place, April, 1614, 
S. P. O. Bacon's biographers have been misled about his seat in 1614 by 
an erroneous conjecture of Willis (Not. Pari., iii. 173). There is a list of 
the Parliament of 1614 among the valuable MSS. at Kimbolton Castle, for 
which, as for many other courtesies, I am indebted to the obliging friend- 
ship of his Grace the Duke of Manchester. 



1614 
Mar. 



182 FKANCIS BACOK 

YIII. raries who know him best, the electors of the University 
23. of Cambridge, the members of the House of Commons. 
Their judgments, happily for us, are given in a very con- 
spicuous and decisive way. 

Bacon's first advice to the Crown in his new office is to 
abandon its irregular, unproductive methods of raising 
funds, inventions of the Meercrafts and Overreaches of the 
court ; to call a new Parliament to Westminster, to explain 
frankly the political situation, and to trust the nation for 
supplies. The advice, though hotly opposed by North- 
ampton and the whole gang of Spanish pensioners, men 
paid to provoke hostility between the Commons and the 
Crown, so far prevails that writs go down into the country. 
For thirteen years Bacon has represented Ipswich in the 
House of Commons. Ipswich clings to him with the love 
of a bride. But Cambridge, a more splendid and gracious 
constituency, claims him for its own. In the ambition 
of a public man there is nothing more pure than the 
wish to represent in Parliament the University at which 
he has been trained; nor is there for the scholar and 
the writer any reward more lofty than the confidence im- 
plied in the votes of a great constituency of scholars and 
gentlemen. In Bacon's case there are peculiar obstacles. 
He left Cambridge early and in disdain ; he has kept 
no friendly intercourse with its dons ; the business of his 
intellectual life has been to destroy the grounds on which 
its system of instruction stands, Yet the members of the 
University feel that as a writer and a philosopher he is not 
only the most brilliant Cambridge man alive, but the most 
brilliant Englishman who ever lived. They elect him. 

The burgesses of Ipswich also elect him. The burgesses 
of St. Albans also elect him. Such a return is unprece- 
dented in parliamentary annals. Only the most popular 



1614. 
Mar. 



TRIPLE RETURN TO PARLIAMENT. 183 

and patriotic candidates are rewarded in this Parlia- VIII. 
ment by double returns. Sandes is elected for Hendon 23. 
and Kochester, Whitelocke for Woodstock and CorfFe Castle. 
No one save the new Attorney-General can boast of a 
triple return. 

Of course he sits for Cambridge ; a fact, overlooked by 
his biographers from Eawley to Lord Campbell, which 
connects his fame in a gentle and gracious form with the 
political history of Cambridge. 

24. Nor is this gracious confidence of his University the April 
most striking proof of popularity which he now receives. 
When the Houses meet in April, a whisper buzzes round the 
benches that the elections for Cambridge, Ipswich, and St. 
Albans are null and void. No man holding the office of 
Attorney-General has ever been elected to serve in Parlia- 
ment: and some of the members seem resolved that so 
powerful an officer of the Crown never ought to sit, and 
never shall sit, in that House. The Attorney-General is the 
Crown trier ; he sets the law in motion ; he gathers the evi- 
dence, weighs the words, sifts the facts for prosecution. 
Unless scrupulous beyond the virtue of man, such an officer, 
hearing everything, noting everything, forgetting nothing, 
may become, in a House of Commons bent on free speech 
as its sacred right, the worst of inquisitors and tyrants. He 
shall not sit. Yet, notwithstanding their jealousy of power, 
the representative gentlemen of England have no heart to 
put the wisest and best among them to the door. They 
seek for precedents, that he may sit. No case is on the 
rolls. An Attorney-General, chosen after his nomination, 
cannot sit by precedent. What then ? They waive their 
right. They take him as he is. Crown lawyer or not 

24. Chamberlain to Carleton, April 14, 1614, S. P. 0. ; Com. Jour., i. 
456 ; Statutes of the Realm, iv. 1207. 



184 FRANCIS BACON. 

VIII. Crown lawyer, he is Sir Francis Bacon. As Sir Francis 

24. Bacon he shall sit. But the case shall stand alone. This 

1614. tribute paid to personal merit and public service must 

April. n °t b e drawn, say the applauding members, into a 

precedent dangerous to their franchise. He is the first 

to sit, he must be the last. 

That an exception in favour of the new Attorney- 
General should have been made by men so hostile to 
the court that they broke up atl ast without passing a 
single bill which the Crown could assent to, is most 
strange. The results are yet more strange. As if to 
witness to the latest generations the profound estimation 
in which Bacon was held by a House of Commons which 
had known him closely for thirty years, and which had 
seen him vote and act under every form of tempta- 
tion that can test the virtue and tax the genius of 
a public man, this exception, made in his favour solely, 
became the rule for his successors and for succeeding 
times. Once only has the restriction been referred to 
in the House. That was in the case of his immediate 
successor. Since his time the presence of the Attor- 
ney-General among the representatives of the people 
has been constant. This fact suggests not only that a 
change has taken place in public thought, but that the 
character of the Crown official has undergone a change. 
Such is the truth. Before Bacon's day the Attorney- 
General was the personal servant of the prince: from 
Bacon's day he has been the servant of the State. Bacon 
was the first of a new order of public men. The fact is 
scarcely less creditable to his political purity than the 
composition of the Novum Organum is glorious to his 
intellectual powers. Bad men kill great offices. Good 
uien fouud them. 



THE PAPAL LEAGUE. 185 



CHAPTEE IX. IX. 1. 

ST. JOHN AND PEACH AM. 1614 ' 

Oct. 11. 

1. If Lord Campbell has not one word to say on Bacon's 
part in the plantation of Virginia, in the regeneration of 
Ulster, he has room for page after page of statement, more 
or less false in fact, wholly false in spirit, on the examina- 
tion into the contempt of Oliver St. John, and on the trial 
for libel of Edmond Peacham. 

Happy the great lawyer who in passionate times can give 
up office with no worse recollection on his soul than 
having conducted two such cases for the Crown ! 

2. First of Oliver St. John. In the session of 1614, as 
in every session when he was out of office, Bacon puts his 
strength to the supplies. The day which he has so t long 
feared has come ; the Papal powers, united over the corpse 
of Henri Quatre, have formed their league ; Spinola's Pan- 
dours and Walloons are crushing out the free, industrial, 
and religious life of the Lower Bhine. A dozen cities lift 
their hands for help. Battalions clash down the passes of 
the] Alps and the Pyrenees, armadas ride in the roads of 
Sicily and in the bays of Spain. The English fleet is rotting 
in port. Only ten or twelve ships are in commission ; four in 
the Thames or the Downs, one or two at Portsmouth and 
Plymouth, four in the Irish seas. The Crown is deep in 
debt. To a man not mad with jealousy of power such a 
political situation must be intolerable, and it is intolerable 

1. Campbell, Life of Bacon, iii. 62-66. 

2. St. John to Mayor of Marlborough, Oct. 11, 1614, S. P. O. 



1614. 
Oct. 11. 



186 FEANCIS BACON. 

IX. 2. to Bacon. But the Puritans are deaf. They fear the King 
even more than the Boman League. They will not give. 
Unable to procure grants from Parliament, James tries to 
raise money by a benevolence ; when the lords, the bishops 
and archbishops, come to his aid, bringing cups, rings, and 
golden angels into the Jewel House of the Tower. All 
mayors of towns are ordered to receive such gifts as may be 
offered. No rate is laid ; no one is forced to give ; at least, 
so say the officers of the Crown. In loyal shires persuasion 
may be used to swell the lists ; but where the magistrates 
are not loyal,, the benevolence flags. Many of the Puri- 
tans, all the Papists, close their hands ; those distrusting 
the court ; these wishing well to the foe. The benevolence 
fares best in the Protestant shires ; worst in the Catholic 
shires. Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, Herts, Berks, Esses, and 
Norfolk yield an army of subscribers. Sussex sends up 
only three ; Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland, not 
one. Now, it is clear that those who oppose a Parlia- 
mentary vote may fairly decline to make a free gift. But 
Oliver St. John, Black Oliver his contemporaries call 
him from his bilious temper and dark complexion, is 
not content merely to decline. A man of a stormy and 
yet slavish spirit, he must denounce this measure of the 
government by voice and pen. He will not let the 
people give. In a public letter to the Mayor of Marl- 
borough he declares that the King, in asking his people 
for a free gift of money, is violating his oath, committing a 
perjury more gross than that for which more than one 
English monarch has lost his crown ! 

Dec. 3. It is impossible for the Privy Council to overlook such 

3. Council Keg., Nov. 19, 25, Dec. 4, 9, 1614, Feb. 3, May 31, 1615 ; 
Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 5, Feb. 9, 1615, S. P. O. ; Council to James, 
Feb. 8, 1615, S. P. O. ; Add. MSS. 19, 402. 



1614. 
Dec. 



CASE OF OLIVEK ST. JOHN. 187 

a contempt. The lawfulness of a Benevolence may be open IX. 3 
to debate ; no true Englishman can doubt that St. John's 
letter is in the highest degree scandalous to the King, and 
in the highest degree injurious to the national force. Lord 
Campbell (who confounds this Oliver St. John with the 
famous Lord Chief Justice of the Commonwealth, now a 
boy of sixteen !) appears to regard St. John as an earlier 
Hampden. A closer reading of the time would show that 
he was one of those loud and lying politicians who are the 
disgrace of every cause. Instead of being the Hampden, 
Black Oliver was the O'Brien or the O'Connor of his time ; 
though he had neither Smith O'Brien's abilities nor Feargus 
O'Connor's dash. When the Marlborough bully is cited 
into the Star Chamber, Coke condemns him to five thou- 
sand pounds fine and imprisonment for life. Yet even the 
Tower, which so often elevates a fool into a martyr, fails 
to make St. John appear, even to the uncliscerning mob, 
either a wise or a brave man. When the gate of his cell 
creaks on its hinge he begins to whine and cry. He re- 
pents his sally, recants his words. . He goes on his knees, 
he pledges his future fame. He begs, fawns, groans to 
be let out. Even those who make an idol of every one 
barred in the Tower turn from this pusillanimous and 
crouching prisoner in disgust. 

4. One of St. John's letters to the King is so amaz- 
ingly abject as to constitute a curiosity in literature. 
In England we are not used to such a style of prison 
supplication, for the men who go wrong generally have 
the merit of going wrong in good faith, and when 
called to the martyr's crown w r ear it as a crown. It may 
be well to give a passage from this document (now 

4. Add. MSS. 19, 102, fol. 62. 



Dec. 



188 FRANCIS BACON. 

IX. 4. for the first time printed), that the world may note, under 
— his own seal, what kind of hero this Oliver St. John 
^ 14, is, whom Lord Campbell mistakes for the great Chief 
Justice ! 

Oliver St. John to the King. 

Most High and Mighty King, my alone virtually 
and rightfully dread Lord and Sovereign (after God my 
Maker and my Saviour Jesus Christ), my hearty chief joy, 
love, slave, and delight ! 

In all humbleness of soul and spirit showeth unto your 
sacred Majesty your poor distressed subject and faithful 
servant, sometimes long close prisoner in the Tower of 
London; that whereas it graciously pleased your said 
Majesty, on humble submission and petition, to consider 
and commiserate the lamentable condition of the poor 
petitioner, censured in the Star Chamber for a letter 
written to the Mayor of Marlborough in October 1614, 
and therewith showed your princely and Eoyal heart so 
moved to mercy, that as the then Lord Chancellor said 
you had out of your admirable and more than kingly 
benignity and bounty so remitted the same that I had 
not any more to starve, although my fine, together with 
my submission, remained on record. . . . But my great and 
brain-sick offence against your Most Excellent Majesty, my 
right dear Sovereign (for which phrase at your Highness's 
feet, my broken heart again and again most humbly and 
instantly asketh your most gracious pardon), forbidding me 
your awful presence ... on my bended knees, in all hu- 
mility of heart and spirit, [I] beseech of your great, imperial, 
and sacred Majesty, first gracious remission and pardon, 
both of the fault and pain, as also, most gracious King and 
my dearest liege lord, that you will further be graciously 



1614. 
Dec. 



CASE OF OLIVER ST. JOHN. 189 

pleased to show your most admirable goodness and mercy IX. 4 
(if it may stand with due order of state policy) in com- 
manding a removal or deleator of the whole record thereof ; 
that so great an ignominy remain not on the name of 
him who, having been now received your Majesty's sworn 
servant, is still resolved ever to receive therein that fatal 
arrow in his breast (with loyal Hugo de St. Clara) than 
once admit into his heart the least disloyal thought against 
your sacred person, dignity, or fame ; the very least of us 
whoso shall seek to impeach, let God from Heaven shoot 
sharp arrows into his heart, that all the King's enemies 
may fall before him. So prayeth, from his inmost heart, 

Your Majesty's humble, faithful, and 

obedient vassal, 

Oliver St. John. 

5. Lord Campbell, who brands the conduct of Bacon in 
officially aiding to silence this impudent and whining de- 
magogue, is more than usually infelicitous in the grounds 
of his charge. He says that Bacon in his speech against 
Oliver St. John strenuously defends the raising of money 
by benevolences. Now, he does no such thing. He never 
once touches the law of these free gifts. He proves, and 
proves most clearly, that the particular benevolence de- 
nounced by St. John to the Mayor of Marlborough as a 
violation of the King's oath, has no character of a forced 
loan. The question tried, if one may say so to a noble- 
man who has been a Lord Chief Justice and is now a 
Lord Chancellor, was not one of law, but one of fact — 
not whether a benevolence was, in the reign of James the 
First, legal, but whether St. John had been guilty of a 

5. State Trials, ii. 899. 



1614. 
Dec. 



190 FKANCIS BACON. 

IX. 5. grievous contempt . in publishing his letter to the Mayor. 
The trial of John Bates for refusing to pay the taxes levied 
by the Book of Bates was a trial of law ; the trial of Oliver 
St. John for calling the King forsworn was a trial of fact. 
St. John was condemned, not for refusing to subscribe his 
money, but for publishing a letter in contempt of the 
Crown. 

6. Pass to the case of Peacham : a case which Lord 
Campbell has taken less pains to understand than even 
that of St. John. "Fine and imprisonment," he writes, 
" having no effect in quelling the rising murmurs of the 
people, it was resolved to make a more dreadful example, 
and Peacham, a clergyman of Somersetshire, between 
sixty and seventy years of age, was selected for the victim. 
On breaking into his study, a sermon was there found, 
which he had never preached, nor intended to preach, nor 
shown to any human being, but which contained some 
passages encouraging the people to resist tyranny. He 
was immediately arrested, and a resolution was taken to 
prosecute him for high treason. But Mr. Attorney, who 
is alone responsible for this atrocious conduct, anticipated 
considerable difficulties both in law and in fact before the 
poor old parson could be subjected to a cruel and almost 
ignominious death." 

In every line of this passage there is error ; indeed, the 
whole passage is an error. No murmurs arose in the 
country on account of St. John. ~No one at court ever 
dreamt of making Peacham a victim, for no one out of 
Somersetshire had ever heard his name. His study was 
not broken into for the purpose of finding treason in 
it. It was not a sermon that had been found. It is 

6. Peacliam's Examination, Aug. 31, 1615, S. P. O. 



1614. 
Dec. 



CASE OF EDMOND PEACHAM. 191 

ridiculous to say that the papers seized in his desk were IX. 6 
not intended to be shown to any human being, for they 
had been written for publication and had in truth been 
shown to several persons. Peacham was not arrested 
immediately on the seizure of his papers : he was already 
in custody for offences less dubious than a political crime. 
Mr. Attorney was not alone responsible for his prosecu- 
tion. He was not at all responsible. The prosecution 
was ordered by the Privy Council, of which he was not 
a member. It was conducted by Winwood, the Puritan 
Secretary of State. 

7. Not much has been left to us by the writers about 
Edmond Peacham ; yet evidence remains in the books at 
Wells and in the records of Her Majesty's State Paper 
Office, to prove that he was one of the most despicable 
wretches who ever brought shame and trouble on the 
Church. It is there seen that he was a libeller. It is 
there seen that he was a liar. It is there seen that he 
was a marvel of turbulence and ingratitude ; not alone a 
seditious subject, but a scandalous minister and a perfidious 
friend. It is in evidence that he outraged his bishop by a 
scandalous personal libel ; and that he did his worst to get 
the patron to whom he owed his living hung. 

8. Hallam tells us how hard it is for him to see any way in 
which this poor parson, in a wild part of the west country, 
far from a large town, could have fallen into the clutches of 

7. Sentence of Deprivation against Peacham, Dec. 19, 1614, S. P. 0. ; 
Presentation Books at Wells. I am indebted for many particulars re- 
specting Peacham to the friendly inquiries made for me by Lord Auckland, 
Bishop of Bath and Wells. A brief inspection of the papers preserved in 
the old gate-tower at Wells convinces me of their very great value for 
ecclesiastical and family history. 

8. Wells MSS. ; Collins' Peerage, art. Pawlett ; Council Reg., Dec. 9, 
16, 1614. 



1614. 
Dec. 



192 FEANCIS BACON. 

IX. 8. the law. The reader of Hallam will be glad to find that 
Peacham fell into grief, not on account of his politics, but 
for an unbearable ecclesiastical offence. 

For several years Peacham had been rector of Hinton 
St. G-eorge, a parish in the wildest part of Somerset- 
shire, and in the diocese of Bath and Wells. James 
Montagu, Dean of the Chapel, was bishop. The lord 
of the manor and patron of the living of Hinton St. 
George was John Paulett, grandson of Bacon's old friend 
and guardian, Sir Amias Paulett, and founder of the noble 
line of that name and place. Margery, a sister of this 
John, married Sir John Sydenham of Combe, one of 
his political friends. Paulett represented the county in 
Parliament, in which he distinguished himself by a firm 
yet far from disloyal opposition to the court. 

The papers at Wells still prove that Peacham had been 
very troublesome to the Church. There had been irregu- 
larities in his institution. There had been libels and accu- 
sations in the Bishop's Court. At length there came from 
Hinton St. George a foul and malignant libel against the 
bishop himself ; when Montagu appealed to his primate, and 
Archbishop Abbott cited the offender to appear before him 
at Lambeth and purge his fame. His character and his 
cause appeared so bad that on his arrival in town Abbott 
lodged him in the Gatehouse, among the herd of recusants, 
monks, and priests. 

Dec. 19. 9. Many a Puritan preacher, silenced for a word on 
copes and stoles, on the closed book or the unlit candle, 
must have envied this libeller such a hearing as the Church 
condescends to grant him. Ten commissioners, one of 

9. Sentence of Deprivation against Edmond Peacham, Dec. 19, 1614, 
S. P. 0. 



1614. 
Dec. 19. 



' CASE OF EDMOND PEACHAM. 193 

them an archbishop, four of them bishops, meet to try his IX. 9 
case. If Abbott and King lean to Puritan views, An- 
drews and JSTeile incline towards Kome. In such a tri- 
bunal there is sure to be sympathy for any excess of 
zeal. Yet these four men, as well as the other six, 
condemn him. Ecclesiastics who differ from each other 
on every point of doctrine and discipline, agree to find 
Peacham guilty of composing, writing, or causing to 
be written, a defamatory libel against his ordinary, con- 
trary to his canonical obedience and reverence and to the 
virtue of his oath, and of writing, or causing to be written, 
a scandalous libel against the laws, statutes, and customs 
of the Church and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, defaming 
the clerical order and the national rite. By a solemn act 
they cast him from the Church. 

10. Among the papers seized in his house at Hinton St. 1615. 
George, and brought up with him to London, is a mass of Jan. 
political writings scrawled on loose sheets, sewn together 
so as to make a book. Glancing through these sheets, the 
commissioners find them stuffed with defamatory attacks 
on the Court, the Government, the Prince of Wales, and 
the King, so sharp and savage that they must have been 
either meant for the signal of a rising or have been com- 
posed by a man drunk or mad. The King is charged 
with falsehood, his ministers with fraud. Peacham treats 
the King with no more reverence than his bishop. He 
has felt himself moved to say that James might be smitten 
of a sudden, in a week, like Ananias and Nabal ; that the 
Prince will want to take back the Crown-lands sold by 
his father, when men will rise up against him, saying — 

10. The true State of the Question whether Peacham 's Case be Treason, 
State Trials, ii. 878. 



1615. 
Jan. 



194 FRANCIS BACON. 

IX. 10. This is the heir, let us kill him. He has declared the 
King's officers so vile that they should be set upon and 
put to the sword ; the King himself a creature not alone 
unfit to reign, but unworthy to bear the name of Christian 
or of man — a thing too abject to crawl on earth or be 
redeemed in heaven. 

These passages are not only meant for the public eye, 
but are ready for the press. 

11. Winwood, who, if not a Puritan, is a protector of 
the Puritans, by whose help he holds his place at court, 
sees no cause in this depraved and convicted man's religion 
to stay his hand. If Peacham is a Puritan, the lay chief 
of the body does not seem to know it. Winwood puts him 
under question ; when the vicious old sinner falls into 
deeper and more odious sin. From either demoniacal 
spite at his recent loss, or from utter callousness of heart, 
he accuses John Paulett, the patron to whom he owes his 
living in the Church, of a treasonable knowledge of the 
contents of his book. And not only John Paulett, but 
his sister's husband, Sir John Sydenham, whom he 
charges, not alone with criminal silence, but with a posi- 
tive share in the composition. Nor do the wretch's lies 
end here. Among the most intimate friends of Paulett 
is Sir Maurice Berkeley, a politician and a reformer, who 
plays a conspicuous part in London life, and who divides 
with him the representation of the shire ; him also 
Peacham charges as a confederate. Winwood gets alarmed. 
A sedition of which Paulett, Berkeley, and Sydenham are 
the accomplices may be fraught with peril. He sends 
Peacham to the Tower, brings Paulett and Berkeley 

11. Council Keg., Nov. 2, Dec. 9, 1614, Feb. 25, 26, 1615. 



CASE OF EDMOND PEACHAM. 195 

before the Privy Council, and calls up Sydenham from IX. 11. 

Combe. — 

1615. 
12. All three gentlemen scout with indignation this j an . 

abominable lie. Paulett and Berkeley say they have never 

heard one word of the scandalous and seditious book ; 

Sydenham says he never wrote a line of it. And they 

tell the truth. If they speak against the Crown on 

questions of prerogative and grievances, they say what 

they have to say in the House of Commons. If they 

are hostile to the court, these men are neither libellors 

nor traitors. 

Where lies the truth ? 

Here are the seditious libels against the Crown, of which 
Peacham asserts that he shares the authorship with 
Sydenham and the privity with Paulett and Berkeley. 
How is Win wood to probe the mystery? The law has 
but one course. Peacham must be interrogated as Fawkes 
was interrogated. 

The Crown sends down a commission to the Tower, con- j an . 18. 
sisting of Winwood, Secretary of State ; Cesar, Master of 
the Bolls ; Bacon, Attorney-General ; Yelverton, Solicitor- 
General ; Montagu, Becorder of London ; Serjeant Crew ; 
and Helwys, Lieutenant of the Tower, to put him to the 
question. An extract from the Council Begister will show 
the order under which they act : — 

The Council to Winwood, Master of the Bolls, 
Lieut, of Tower, and others. 

" After our hearty commendations. Whereas Edmond 
Peacham, now prisoner in the Tower, stands charged with 
the writing of a book or pamphlet containing matters 

12. Council Keg., Jan. 18, 1615. 

o 2 



1615. 
Jan. 18. 



196 FRANCIS BACON. 

IX. 12. treasonable (as is conceived), and being examined there- 
upon refuseth to declare the truth in those points whereof 
he hath been interrogated. For so much as the same doth 
concern his Majesty's sacred person and government, and 
doth highly concern his service, to have many things yet 
discovered touching the said book and the author thereof, 
wherein Peacham dealeth not so clearly as becometh an 
honest and loyal subject. These shall be therefore in his 
Majesty's name to will and require you and every of you to 
repair with what convenient diligence you may unto the 
Tower, and there to call before you the said Peacham, and 
to examine him strictly upon such interrogatories con- 
cerning the said book as you shall think fit and necessary 
for the manifestation of truth ; and if you find him obstinate 
and perverse, and not otherwise willing or ready to tell 
the truth, then to put him to the manacles as in your dis- 
cretion you shall see occasion ; for which this shall be to 
you and every of you sufficient warrant." 

13. That these instructions were obeyed by the commis- 
sioners there is no room to doubt. A man of gentle heart 
may regret that commands so savage and so futile should 
proceed from the English Crown; but while grieving 
that our ancestors were either less wise or less compas- 
sionate than ourselves, no candid mind will consent to 
assess the fault of an entire generation on the character of 
a single man. A belief that truth must be sought by help 
of the cord, the maiden, and the wheel, was in the opening 
years of the seventeenth century universal. It had come 
down with the codes and usages of antiquity, sustained by 
the practice of every people on the civilized globe ; most 
of all by the practice of those wealthy and illustrious 

13. Dora. Papers James the First, lxxx. 6, 26, 88. 



GENEEAL USE OF TORTURE. 197 

communities which had kept most pure the traditions IX. 13. 
of Imperial Roman law. Men who agreed in nothing — 
else, agreed in seeking truth through pain. Nations 
which fought each other to the knife over definitions of 
grace, election, and transubstantiation, had a common faith 
in the possibility of discovering truth by the rack, the 
pincers, and the screw. There were torture-chambers at 
Osnaburgh and Eatisbon no less hideous than those of 
Valladolid and Rome. The same hot bars, the same Feb. 
boots, the same racks, were found in the Piombi and the 
Bastile, in the Bargello and the Tower. Nor was the 
Church one whit more gentle or enlightened than the civil 
power. Cardinals searched out heresy in the flames of the 
Quemadero, as the Council of Ten tracked treason in the 
waves of the Lagune. Bacon was not more responsible for 
the universal practice than for the particular act. To 
have set himself against the spirit of his time he must 
have mounted St. Simeon Stylites' column, or shrunk into 
St. Anthony's cave. If he chose to live among men, he 
must discharge the duties of a man. There lies a deep 
gulf between acts of duty and acts of the will. One who 
from morbid mind, or from love of pain, must follow the 
death-cart to Tyburn, is not performing a noble or 
necessary deed; yet the chaplain who has to recite the 
prayer, the sheriff who has to signal the drop, go free 
from blame. So in truth with Bacon. If he were present 
at the question of Peacham, he was there as one of a com- 
mission acting under special commands from the Privy 
Council. It is silly to say he was responsible for what was 
done. He was not chief of the commissioners. He was 
not even a member of the high body in whose name they 
spoke. His official superiors, Winwood and Cesar, were 
on the spot. Does Lord Campbell think the Attorney- 



198 FRANCIS BACON. 

IX. 13. General should have declined to act with them, thrown up 

— his commission, and refused to obey the Crown ? 

1615. 

Feb. 14. Bear in mind the age in which he lived. The cry 

of pain, the gasp of death, were no such shocks to the 
gentle heart as they would be in a softer time. Men had 
been hardened in the Smithfield fires. Minds were infected 
by the atrocities of Papist plots. The ballads sung in the 
streets were steeped in blood, and the plays which best 
drew audiences to the Globe theatre were those in which 
fewest of the characters were left alive. Hamlet 3 Pericles, 
Titus Andronicus, were the Shakesperean favourites. No 
man is known to have felt any sickness of the heart in 
presence of judicial torture. Egerton often saw men on 
the rack. Win wood stood by while Peacham, under tor- 
ture, told his tale. James was present when Fawkes was 
stretched. A feeling, it is true, was beginning to quicken in 
society against this use of the rack. Both Coke and Bacon 
disapproved its use ; but this merciful sentiment of a few 
jurists and philosophers was unshared by the multitude of 
men who made the laws. Until the Crown should see fit 
to abandon this old plan of seeking truth through crushed 
feet and dislocated joints, the officers of the Crown had 
no choice but to read their commission and execute their 
trust. 

15. This truth is so clear that it ought to need no 
illustration. Take a fact from our own time. More 
than one living judge is supposed to be adverse to trial 
by J ur y« Yet the judges sit in courts where property 
and life are daily exposed to the mercy of a dozen illo- 
gical and prejudiced men. Are they responsible for the 
wrong done ? Again, it is conceivable that a judge might 
feel uneasy on the score of capital punishments. It is 






1615. 
Feb. 



POSSIBLE CASE OF LOKD CAMPBELL. 199 

inconceivable that any judge on the Bench would refuse IX. 15. 
to hang a Palmer or a Bush so long as the law continues 
to declare wilful murder worthy of death. Bacon told the 
King that he misliked the use of torture in judicial in- 
quiries. He told him so in this very case of Peacham. 
Further than that expression he could not go. 

Bacon's case in 1860 may possibly become Lord Camp- 
bell's case in 1960. Let the public heart go on softening 
for a hundred years, fast as it has softened from the 
early days of John Howard, and the whole civilized world 
may come by 1960 to regard the strangling of a human 
being, on any pretext whatever, as a monstrous crime. 
Would such a change of public feeling lay Lord Campbell 
open to the charge of judicial murder ? Would it be just 
in a writer of that compassionate age to relate with 
"horror" that Lord Campbell prostituted eminent parts 
and sullied an honourable name by sitting for many years 
in a court of justice where life was taken in the name of 
law, with his own lips delivering man after man, and even 
woman after woman, to be strangled in presence of a brutal 
crowd, by a wretch who received his blood-money for every 
loathsome job? Would it be fair to say that Lord 
Campbell in his thirst for blood took the life of Sarah 
Chesham, a poor woman sentenced to death on circum- 
stantial proof, who protested her innocence with the rope 
round her throat ? Would it be fair to say that with savage 
glee he ordered Emma Mussett to be strangled on pretence 
of child-murder, even though obliged to confess that the 
evidence was full of doubt ? Would it be honest in the 
writer of a future century to say that in 1860 Lord Camp- 
bell stood alone on the bench in his resolute practice of 
hanging women' — while, under such humane judges as 
Crompton and Cresswell, the lives of Celestina Sommers 



200 FRANCIS BACON. 

IX. 15. and Elizabeth Harris, criminals of whose guilt no man 
could doubt, were spared? We think the writer who 
should say this, or anything like this, in 1960, would be as 
unfair to Lord Campbell as Lord Campbell has been to 
Francis Bacon. 



1615. 
Feb. 



Aug. 16. How Peacham lies and swears, now accusing others, 

and now himself, anon retracting all that he has said, 
denying even his handwriting and his signature, one day 
standing to the charge against Sydenham, next day run- 
ning from it altogether ; how he is sent ^.own into Somer- 
setshire, the scene of his ignoble ministry, to be tried by 
a jury of men who will interpret his public conduct by 
what they know of his private life ; how he is found guilty 
by the twelve jurors and condemned by Sir Lawrence Tan- 
field and Sir Henry Montagu, two of the most able and 
humane judges on the bench; how his sentence is com- 
muted by the Crown into imprisonment during the King's 
pleasure ; and how he ultimately dies in Taunton jail, 
unpitied by a single friend, I need not pause to tell. 

V 

Aug. 31. 17. After sentence of death has been recorded against 
him, he offers to tell the truth, if the King will only spare 
his life. The written confession, twice signed by his hand, 
which remains in the State Paper Office, tells in his own 
words how he came to utter that lie about Sir John 
Sydenham. A question being put to him : 

"He answereth that all the said words wherewith he 
charged Sir John Sydenham were first written by himself, 
this examinate, only ; and, afterwards hearing these same 

16. State Trials, ii. 870 ; Diary of Walter Yonge, 27 ; Chamberlain to 
Carleton, Feb. 9, Mar. 2, Aug. 24, 1615, S. P. O. ; Council Reg., July 12, 
1615. 

17. Peacham's Examination, Aug. 31, 1615, S. P. O. 



Aug. 31. 



PEACHAM'S ANSWERS. 201 

words delivered unto him by Sir John Sydenham, they IX. 17. 
were, to this examinate, a confirmation of that which he — 
had formerly written. And, being further asked how he 1615. 
could so strongly father those words upon Sir John Syden- 
ham, seeing he now confesseth himself to be the author, 
and Sir John Sydenham but only to confirm him in them, 
he answereth that, when he made this answer, he under- 
stood not that distinction betwixt the author and confirmer, 
but that they were both taken for one to his under- 
standing. And, being asked as before, what was his 
reason and end in charging Sir John Sydenham, he 
answereth he did it to satisfy his Majesty and the Lords 
with the truth." 

Being asked his motives and intentions in writing the 
pamphlet : 

" He answereth that, first, it was compiled without any 
knowledge of evil (?) on his part, either against the King or 
estate ; and, secondly, after good and advised deliberation, 
he would have taken out all the venom and poison thereof, 
before ever he would have published the same. And, 
being asked in what manner he would have published it — 
either by preaching it, or delivering copies of it, or by 
printing it — he protesteth that his intent was never either 
to publish, or to give copy, or to print, but only in 
private, for his own study, to reduce it into, heads, that 
he might make use thereof for such particulars as he 
out of the text observed, whensoever he should have 
occasion to speak of any such matter, when all the evil 
was taken out." 

He pronounces this a true confession ; saying he should 
abhor telling a lie to his sovereign, and should think 
himself guilty of his own blood if he kept back anything 



202 FRANCIS BACON. 

IX. 17. after having been promised his life for revealing the 

— truth. 
1615. 

e P " 18. One more charge. Bacon, it has been said, not 

only stands by while the prisoner undergoes examination, 
but, on the King's command, consults the judges as to 
whether this crime of seditious writing amounts to treason 
by the law. In the wake of Macaulay, Lord Campbell 
says that a private consultation with the judges was an 
act most scandalous and most unusual. The scandal of 
such proceedings may be matter of opinion; their fre- 
quency is beyond denial. The Kings of England always 
enjoyed, and constantly exercised, the right of consulting 
their judges on 'the statutory bearing of political crimes. 
These judges had always been the King's judges ; holding 
their commissions at his pleasure ; bound by their oaths to 
advise him on points of law. Macaulay says there is no 
instance of the Crown privately consulting with the bench : 
"Bacon was not conforming to an usage then generally 
admitted to be proper. He was not even the last lingering 
adherent of an old abuse. It would have been sufficiently 
disgraceful to such a man to be in this last situation. Yet 
this last situation would have been honourable, compared 
with that in which he stood. He was guilty of attempt- 
ing to introduce into the courts of law an odious abuse, 
for which no precedent could be found." Why, the 
law-books teem with precedents. One will serve for a 
score. It happens, indeed, that there is one precedent 
so strange in its circumstances, and so often the subject 
of legal and historical comment, that it is amazing how 
it could have slipped the recollection of any lawyer, 

18. Macaulay 's Essay on Bacon ; Campbell's Life of Bacon, iii. 65. 



LEGATE BURNT BY JAMES. 203 

and most of all a lawyer writing of the times of James IX. 18. 

the First. — 

1615. 

19. Peacham's arrest occurred in 1614. In 1612, Bar- g , 

tholomew Legate, a poor Arian preacher, of simple nature 
and extreme dogmatic views, was tried by a consistory 
of divines then sitting at St. Paul's, condemned for ten 
separate heresies, and sentenced to be burnt alive. King, 
his ordinary, turned him over to the secular arm. But, as 
an Act of the first year of Elizabeth had repealed the 
Statute of Heresy, leaving errors of faith to the more 
merciful ruling of the common law, a question arose as 
to whether the Crown had power to execute this abomi- 
nable sentence of the divines. James thought he had 
full powers. The judges were consulted one by one. 
Abbott instructed Egerton how to act; and the Lord 
Chancellor conferred in private with his legal brethren, 
Williams, Croke, and Altham being sounded by him or by 
his orders. As they all agreed that James, despite the 
repeal of the Statute of Heresy, had power to burn, the 
King, on their authority, issued his warrant under the 
sign manual to Egerton, Egerton sent his writ to the 
sheriff, and thus, without condemnation in any civil 
court, Bartholomew Legate perished in the Smithfield 
flames. 

This is the precedent Macaulay seeks. 

20. It is right to add that the Privy Council abandoned 
all proceedings against Paulett and Berkeley at an early 
date, and that Sydenham was restored to his freedom 
purged in fame. It is also right to add that the notion of 

19. Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 26, Mar. 25, 1612, S. P. O. ; Sign 
Manuals, i. No. 15 ; Egerton Papers, 447. 

20. Council Keg., Mar. 26; Chamberlain to Carleton, Mar. 2, 1615, 
S. P. O. 



204 FEANCIS BACON. 

IX. 20. treating Edmond Peacham as though he were in some 
sort a Puritan martyr is an aberration of the modern 
biographical mind. The Puritan writers say nothing for 
him ; he has no place in the pages of Toulmin or of 
Neale. He was degraded by a Puritan Archbishop, pro- 
secuted and condemned by a Puritan Secretary of State. 



1615. 
Sept. 



CARR, EARL OF SOMERSET. 205 



CHAPTER X. 



KACE WITH COKE. 



1. Lord Campbell accuses Bacon of having fawned on X. 1. 
Somerset in his greatness, of having abandoned him in his — 
fall. Part of this accusation was made by Coke ; not all of 1615 - 
it ; and in a whisper, not in boldly-spoken words. A glance e ^ ' 
at the facts, as they stand in the registers of the Privy 
Council and the archives of the State Paper Office, will 
suffice, it is thought, to convince an impartial reader that 
Bacon's course through these proceedings against the Earl 
and Countess of Somerset was in the highest degree noble 
and humane. Such a reader will see that he was neither 
obsequious to Somerset in his pride, nor insolent to him 
in his disgrace. 

2. Somerset had not been friendly to Bacon's suit. 
Not that«fche young Scottish favourite was wholly want- 
ing in sympathy for merit. His own abilities were not 
vast, nor his tastes, except in dress, refined ; yet he was 
very far from being the abject creature that Lord Campbell 
says. Abject of nature he was not; guilty of murder 
he was not. More than one popular poet found in 

1. Campbell, iii. 66 ; Yelverton to Bacon, Sept. 3, 1617, Lambeth MSS. 
936. 

2. Bacon to Carr, Nov. 14, 1612, S. P. O. Mr. Amos, in his Great Oyer 
of Poisoning, 1846, and Dr. Eimbault, in his Introduction to the Mis- 
cellaneous Works of Sir Thomas Overbury, 1856, have thrown light on 
the story of Somerset ; but the true history can be traced in its minute 
details nowhere save in the State Papers of 1612-15. These papers are 
far too numerous to cite. 



206 FKANCIS BACON. 

X. 2. him a patron and a friend. He was kind to Jonson, 
— more than kind to Donne. For years he maintained the 
closest intimacy with Overbury ; a connexion not to have 
•P ' been kept with that haughty and sensitive man of genius 
had Somerset been the fool in feathers and rosettes he is 
commonly made. But Bacon's policy was not his policy. 
Blown about with every wind, the favourite swayed 
from west to east, now moored among the extreme 
Puritans, now among the most bigoted of the Papists. 
When he at length chose a side, it was with the party 
against which Bacon had spent the best of his days and 
the most brilliant of his powers ; for he suffered his 
name to be used, and his influence over James to be 
abused, by that iniquitous Spanish faction of which Sir 
William Monson was the pensioned agent, Lord North- 
ampton the pensioned chief. 

A nature proof against gold was not proof against love. 
A pair of bright eyes, which, in the language of Donne, 

" Sowed the court with stars," 

turned upon him ; the eyes of Lady Essex, Lord North- 
ampton's niece. Her uncle set her on; that%enal old 
pander putting the young wife of Essex in Somerset's 
way, tempting her virtue to break its vows, and lending 
his house to the profligate pair for their stolen kisses. 
Soft of heart, inclined by youth and rivalry to vice, 
Somerset fell into the snares laid for him by the wily 
greybeard and the shameless girl. 

3. Somerset won to their side, the Eomanist party 
ruled the state. All that a doting prince has in his gift 

3. Wake to Carleton, Venice Correspondence, Nov. 18, 1612 ; Chamber- 
lain to Carleton, Nov. 26, 1612, S. P. O. ; Bacon's Speech in Star Chamber, 
Nov. 10, 1615, S. P. O. 



MURDER OF OVERBURY. 207 

— rank, places, pensions, grants, monopolies, embassies, X. 3. 
mitres — for a time were theirs. They gave to whom — 
they would, and they sold to whom they could. They 
refused to give Bacon the Court of Wards. They sold P ' 
it to Cope. But their reign was short ; for the actors in 
this drama of unholy love fell from their odious pro- 
fligacy into a diabolical crime. Overbury, whom they 
feared, not only for his influence over Carr, but for the 
English vigour of his Protestantism, was done by them to 
death. At first they kept their secret ; and in truth the 
accusation against them was of a kind which defies belief. 
That three great earls, with three or four distinguished 
knights holding high positions in the country, should league 
themselves with wizards, harlots, quacks, prentice-boys, and 
grooms, to murder a private gentleman for a few verses 
of reproof addressed to a friend in love, required the bold 
and morbid imagination of a Webster even to conceive. 
Poisoning, too, was rare : "It is neither of our country nor 
of our church," said Bacon ; " you may find it in Kome or 
Italy; there is a region or perhaps a religion for it." 
People forgot that Northampton was of that religion, 
that his associates were Italians and Jesuits, and that his 
early days had been spent in Florence and Eome. 

4. Yet suspicion spread. The poet's kinsmen mur- 
mured. Some who understood his character, many who 
admired his writings, spoke of his sudden death, his singular 
interment. Then, the publication of ' The Wife,' a poem 
which charmed all hearts by its wisdom and poetic beauty, 
kindled a burning wish to inquire into the poet's fate. Five 
editions of The Wife were sold in a year ; five thousand 

4. A Wife, now a Widowe, 1614 ; A Wife, now the Widow of Sir Thomas 
Overbury e, 1614; Do., in three subsequent impressions, 1614; Bacon's 
Speech in Star Chamber, Nov. 10, 1615. 



1615. 

Sept. 



208 FRANCIS BACON. 

X. 4. voices began to call his enemies to account. The cry could 
not be stifled. Men forgot their affairs to ask about the 
poisoners of Overbury ; the ordinary courts of law, even the 
playhouses, were abandoned for the development of a more 
striking drama. Term, says Bacon, was turned into a 
justicium or vacancy by it. Yet, who was to set the law in 
motion ? Those to be touched by the officers of justice, 
perhaps by the hangman, stood among the highest in the 
land. Who would lay finger on the Howards and the 
Carrs ? 

5. Men sprang up for this desperate duty. By his 
union with the wife of a living man, Somerset grieved the 
church of which Abbott was the hierarchical head, not less 
than the Puritan congregations of which Winwood was con- 
sidered the parliamentary chief. The Archbishop, having 
strained his strength and jeopardized his life to prevent 
the divorce, was ready to fight, with such allies as God 
might send him, against the malign ambition and insatiable 
greed of Lady Somerset's kin. Therefore, when the cry 
for justice on the murderers of Overbury rose to heaven, he 
offered his high rank and holy character as a shield to such 
witnesses as, without this august protection, would scarcely 
have dared to wag their tongues. Winwood, Egerton, Zouch, 
Southampton, Essex, Pembroke, and Montgomery, all the 
more patriotic peers, the friends of poets, the founders 
of Free States, joined hands with the brave Archbishop 
in this crusade against vice and crime. Bacon, who had 
known the poet and admired the qualities of his genius, went 
with the English churchman and the English peers. 

5. Archbishop Abbott's Narrative, in Kushworth, i. 460 ; Bacon's Speech 
in Star Chamber, Nov. 10, 1615; Weston's Examination, Sept. 28, 29, 
Oct. 2, 3, 5, 6, 1615, S. P. O. ; Sir Thomas Monson's Examination, Oct. 5, 
1615, S. P. O. 



1615. 



PROCEEDINGS AGAINST POISONEES. 209 

The bright eyes and soft cheek of George Villiers, a X. 5. 
prettier man than even Carr, reconciled the King's heart 
to a general arrest and rigorous examination of his old 
favourite's bosom friends. Coke managed the case against e ^ ' 
them. 

Soon the confessions of Franklin, Weston, and Anne 
Turner implicated high persons. Northampton was beyond 
the reach of law; but his tools or dupes, Sir Gervase 
Helwys, Sir Thomas and Sir William Monson, were still 
alive. Coke lodged them in the Tower ; sent Helwys to 
the gallows ; got a true bill found against Sir Thomas 
Monson at Guildhall, and would have put him to death, 
with or without evidence of his guilt, but for the necessity 
of keeping him, an unconvicted man, as evidence against 
Carr. 

6. In these trials of the assassins, it is remarkable that Nov. 
Bacon, though holding office as Attorney-General, has no 
share. Either his gentle nature shrinks from the horrors of 
a criminal prosecution, or Coke excludes him from pro- 
ceedings in which he expects to find abundant profit and 
fame. Either supposition may be true. It is obvious from 
the record of the criminal courts that Bacon must often have 
left to others, when he might have taken the part himself, 
the dramatic and exciting task of chasing criminals to death. 
None of Coke's thirst for blood parched up his soul : the 
trials of Essex and Sanquhair are almost the sole cases in 
which Bacon took part that ended in the loss of life. Coke, 
bent on hanging and bowelling all these miserable wretches, 
may have feared his tender heart and his respect for the 
forms of law. Certain it is that Sir Lawrence Hyde acts 
as Crown prosecutor, and that one at least of the prisoners, 

6. State Trials, ii. 911-948 ; Welden, 101. 



210 FRANCIS BACON. 

X. 6. that one a woman, is hurried to the gallows in a way 
which no lawyer can now defend. 

1616. 7. In the more important trials of the Earl and Countess 
May 24. f Somerset, not before Coke, but before the highest court 
in the realm, the House of Peers, Bacon assumes his place. 
Lady Somerset pleads guilty, throwing herself on the mercy 
of God and the King — drawn to that course by an under- 
standing, or a promise, that her appeal to the Crown shall 
be mercifully heard. Bacon is prepared for either course : 
the notes of a speech intended to have been made against 
her are preserved among his works. They are singularly 
merciful and gentle. Somerset's case comes last. Lord 
Campbell assumes his guilt ; but such a study of the con- 
fessions as he gave to the evidence against Sarah Chesham 
or William Palmer would convince him that, though guilty 
of some depravity of heart and understanding, as well as of 
criminal weakness towards his wife and her associates, it is 
very far indeed from sure that he was guilty of any share 
in Overbury's death. No proof was given, nor has any proof 
been yet found, that Somerset knew of Weston being put 
into the cell to kill Overbury, or of the Countess sending the 
relays of poisoned tarts and soups. It is certain that he 
was deceived throughout by Lord Northampton. Yet, on 
the other hand, it is not to be denied that his indolent 
selfishness led him to the very verge of connivance in the 
crime. It was a case of doubt, and will remain so to the 
end of time. Bacon claimed strict justice from the Peers, 
while he left the gates of mercy open to the Crown. The 
Peers condemn Somerset, but with a tacit understanding 
that his life shall not be taken away. 

7. Sherburne's Eeport of Lady Somerset's Trial, May 24, 1616, S. P. O. ; 
Winwood to Wotton, May 2, 1616, Venice Correspondence, S. P. O. ; 
Bacon's Charge, in Montagu, vi. 235. 



1616. 
May. 



INTERCEDES FOR THE SOMERSETS. 211 

8. When Somerset has been sent to the Tower — when X. 8. 
the Howards are cast down from their bad eminence, 
and the flagitious Spanish clique seems broken by their 
fall — Bacon's voice is raised for clemency. When he has 
done his duty as Attorney-General, he remembers his 
privileges as a Christian and a man. Life enough has 
been taken. Helwys, Weston, Franklin, Anne Turner, 
all the more active agents in the deed, are gone. The 
Countess has a baby at her breast — that little girl who 
born in shame, will live to become the mother of William 
Lord EusselL She has confessed her guilt, she has been 
awfully punished, and the remnant of her years is doomed 
to obscurity and shame. The Earl maintains his inno- 
cence ; the world has not been satisfied of his guilt. 
Humanity and Law alike concede to him the protection 
of every doubt. Bacon's counsel to the Crown must be 
allowed to be pure. He owes nothing to Somerset in the 
past — he can have nothing to hope from him in the time 
to come. 

9. He has some domestic and rather humorous trials of 
his own. Sir John and the lady in Worcester break his 
rest. Having put his scorn upon Lord Eure,^and worried 
him into selling his place to Lord Gerard ; having got, with 
the help of Gervase Babington, Bishop of Worcester, a 
grant from the Crown to restore his pool ; having finished 
his house in the middle of Westwood Park, and given a 
banquet to Lord and Lady Compton and their train in 
honour of the event, which has been the talk of neighbour- 
ing shires, the warm old knight, having no one left to 

8. Bacon to James, April 28, 1616. 

9. Council Reg., Mar. 7, 1615 ; Dom. Papers James the First, lxxxvii. 
67, S. P. O. ; Wotton, i. 186. 

p 2 



212 FRANCIS BACON. 

X. 9. fight with, has begun to fuss and wrangle with his wife. 

— The widow, on her side, is now perverse. Sir John has 

" "• to turn her out of doors. When she leaves the park 

a ^' and rides up to town, her clothes and trinkets, sent on 

before her, are stolen on the way. In the full belief that 

Sir John has caused her to be plundered, Lady Pakington 

sends her wrongs to the Privy Council, and begs to have 

a general warrant of search for her stolen trunks. This 

piece of domestic comedy stands solemnly recorded in the 

Council-books : 

March the seventh, 1615. 

Present : 

George Abbott, Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Thomas Howard Earl of Suffolk, Lord Treasurer. 

Edward Somerset Earl of Worcester, Lord Privy Seal. 

William Herbert Earl of Pembroke, Lord Chamberlain. 

The Earl of Dunfermline. 

The Bishop of Winchester. 

Lord Knollys. 

Sir Ealph Winwood, First Secretary of State. 

A General Warrant directed to all His Majesty's 
Public Officers. 

" Whereas complaint hath been made unto us by the 
Lady Pakington, wife to Sir John Pakington, knight, that, 
having occasion to repair to London, and sending up 
divers trunks of apparel and other necessaries for the use 
of her person, the same was carried aside, and as yet 
detained from her, to her great hindrance and prejudice. 
These are therefore to will and require you to make search 
in all places where you shall be directed by this bearer for 
apparel belonging to the Lady Pakington, and the same 



LADY PAKINGTON. 213 

being found to cause it to be delivered to this bearer for X. 9. 

her use." — 

1610. 
This warrant to search for Lady Pakington's hoods May. 
and jerkins, fans, ruffs, and farthingales, is signed by the 
Archbishop, the Lord Treasurer, and the rest ! 

10. It may for charity be hoped the poor lady finds her 
trunks, though the Council-books say no more about them. 
Certain it is that when she again goes home to Westwood 
Park she nags and frets Sir John, and not Sir John alone. 
Two of her girls are now married, and she does her very 
worst to make their husbands as miserable as her own. 
How Mervin Touchet bears her tongue we are not told ; but 
this young lord being rather crazed, and exceedingly vicious 
and tyrannical, it is likely enough that he submits, as such 
men do, to the woman's cold, dry, dogged will. Not so 
Francis Bacon, who insists, to her surprise and rage, on 
being the master in his own house. When she tries on 
him the arts which have sometimes roused, but more fre- 
quently have tamed Sir John, he tells her in the plainest 
words to mind her own business, and mind it better than 
she has done. He even shuts his door upon her when he 
finds her naught. If she hints in her own sweet way 
that, should he turn his wife out of the house, as she sup- 
poses he soon will, now that he has turned his deaf side 
to her mother's counsels, she will receive her back from 
him, and give her, the poor outraged thing, a home, Bacon 
quietly reminds her that, considering what is passed, and 
who has been already cast off once, it is more likely that 
she will come to beg a room at Gorhambury than that 
Lady Bacon will need to seek one at Westwood Park. 

10. Montagu, xiii. 63. 



1616. 



214 FKANCIS BACON. 

X. 10. This letter is in Montagu ; but though curious to the last 
degree, it has passed unnoticed the eye of every writer 

of Bacon's life, because the relation of Bacon to Lady 
May . • 

J * Pakington has not been known. I reproduce it in con- 
nexion with the domestic facts to which it belongs, and 
which it helps to explain. 

To my Lady Pakington, in answee to a Message by her sent. 

Madam, 

You shall with right good will be made acquainted 
with anything that concerneth your daughters, if you bear 
a mind of love and concord, otherwise you must be content 
to be a stranger unto us ; for I may not be so unwise as to 
suffer you to be an author or occasion of dissension between 
your daughters and their husbands, having seen so much 
misery of that in yourself. And above all things I will 
turn back your kindness, in which you say you will receive 
my wife if she be cast off ; for it is much more likely we 
have occasion to receive you being cast off, if you re- 
member what is passed. But it is time to make an end of 
those follies, and you shall at this time pardon me this one 
fault of writing to you ; for I mean to do it no more till you 
use me and respect me as you ought. So, wishing you 
better than it seemeth you will draw upon yourself, 

I rest yours, 

Fe. Bacon. 

11. The merciful part which Bacon, as Attorney-General, 
plays in the release of Sir William Monson and Sir 

11. Waad's Statement, Sept. 1615, S. P. O. ; Coke's Memorandum, 
Sept. 11, 1615, Jan. 8, 1616, S. P. O. ; James to the Commissioners, Oct. 
21, 1615, S. P. O. ; Coke to the King, Dec. 4, 1615, S. P. O. ; Sir Thomas 
Monson to Coke, Dec. 5, 1615, S. P. O. 



INTERCEDES FOR THE MONSONS. 215 

Thomas Monson from the Tower, having escaped the X. 11. 
researches of Basil Montagu, has escaped the critfcisms of — 

1 f 1 A 

Lord Campbell. Yet the facts of this interference embrace 

. • Mav 

a continuation of the duel with Coke, and are essential to J * 

an understanding of some of the remoter causes of Bacon's 

fall. 

In the first warm days of discovery the two Monsons 
were flung into the Tower. The proof would have 
gone hard against them. They were Papists. They 
were friends of Northampton. They were intimate 
with Lady Somerset. Sir William Monson was the 
secret agent of the Spanish Ambassador. Sir Thomas 
had been the means of placing Weston in Overbury's 
cell. Any actual participation in the murder has never 
yet been proved against either of them; yet in the 
flush and anger of the public, more could have been 
brought against them than any twelve Protestant jurors 
would have asked in order to their condemnation. Guild- 
hall would have pronounced them guilty, as King's 
Bench had pronounced Anne Turner guilty, and Coke 
would most gladly have sent them to the gallows or the 
block. 

But Bacon feels that, now the King has resolved to 
pardon Somerset and his guilty wife, the Monsons cannot 
be put to death without shocking all reasonable, con- 
scientious men. They are Catholics ; but he cannot treat 
their religion as a crime. Coke is furious. As one of the 
four commissioners for the prosecution, he has made a vast 
collection of secret papers on the subject; these papers 
he refuses to give up; and from threats which he has 
used on hearing that he may be baulked of his prey, 
it is feared that in his fury he may send them to the 



216 FKANCIS BACON. 

X. 12. 12. The advocates of mercy hie to the King. James 
— commands Bacon to require from Coke the surrender of all 
1616. these documents for his Majesty's use. The Attorney- 
May. General thereupon writes to the Lord Chief Justice : — 

Bacon to Coke. 
My Lokd, 

I received yesternight express commandments from 

his Majesty to require from 3 r our Lordship, in his Majesty's 

name, all and every such examinations as are in your 

Lordship's hands of Sir William Monson for his Majesty's 

present service. Therefore, I pray your Lordship either 

send them presently, sealed up, by your servant, or, if you 

think it needful, I will come to you myself and receive 

them with mine own hands. I rest, your Lordship's loving 

friend, to command, 

Fb. Bacon. 

This Tuesday, at seven o'clock in the morning, 16th of 
April, 1616. 

Imagine the rage of Coke ! No evidence to connect Sir 
William with the murderous scenes in the Tower has been 
discovered, while the proofs of his connexion with the 
Spanish Ambassador, and of his disbursements of money to 
the partisans of Spain, are of a kind not to be produced by 
the King in a court of law. 

13. Sir Thomas Monson's case is far more difficult than 
Sir William's ; for Sir Thomas was in daily communica- 
tion with Helwys when the poisons were being given, 
and his warm recommendation of Weston first encou- 

12. Bacon to Coke, April 16, 1616, S. P. O. ; Carew to Eoe, Jan. 18, 
1617, S. P. O. 

13. Coke to the King, Feb. 8, 1616, S. P. O. ; Queries by Coke, Feb. 
1616, S. P. O. ; Chamberlain to Carleton, June 8, 1616, S. P. O. 



CASE OF COMMENDAMS. 217 

raged Helwys to permit and then to share the crime. Yet X. 13. 
a careful examination of the mass of evidence in the State — 
Paper Office must convince a lawyer that Monson was 
no worse than Northampton's tool and dupe. He was a ^' 
guilty of Eomanism : a crime which Coke, and many 
bigots like Coke, would have punished with the drop. He 
was guilty, too, of grave indiscretion and of crawling sub- 
serviency towards Northampton. How could the Crown 
lawyers deal with such a case ? Monson had undergone a 
public examination, not a public trial. Coke would have 
his life. 

14. But while the two Monsons lie in the Tower, each June, 
loud in his denial of guilt, yet scared in soul by the 
violence and injustice of his adversaries, Coke himself, the 

most eager and malicious of those adversaries, crashes down 
suddenly from his high place. 

That command to give up the confessions and examina- 
tions of Sir William must have gone to the quick ; as it 
not only robs him of the power to bully and hang a man 
for whose creed he has no tolerance, but takes from him a 
case in which he feels a lawyer's pride, to give it over to 
one whom of all living men he most loathes and fears. 
This wrong he resents in word and deed. Seeing scorn 
and insult on the brow of a prince from whom he hoped 
to win smiles and bounty, he droops into discontent and 
opposition. In the great case of Commendams he comes 
into fatal collision with the King. 

15. The case of Commendams, on the law of which 
Egerton and Bacon differ from Coke, may be explained 

14. Carew to Eoe, Jan. 18, 1617, S. P. O. 

15. Storia del Concilio Tridentino, 1629 ; Collier's Ecclesiastical History 
of Great Britain, vii. 389 ; Council Reg., June 6, 1616. 



1616. 
June. 



218 FKANCIS BACON. 

X. 15. in a few words. A living in commendam was in the 
same position as a ward in custody ; it was oommitted to 
some one's care. The custom of such holdings in the 
church arose in troublous times, when a Genseric was in 
Eome or an Attila in Gaul ; then sees and parishes, left 
without occupants, were given in commendam to the 
nearest bishop or the nearest priest. In time the Popes 
discovered in this system of holding sees or livings a 
means of rewarding a loyal friend or buying off a formid- 
able foe. In England, too, the plan had its use and its 
abuse. Some of the livings were so rich, while some of 
the sees were so poor, that a clergyman might lose in 
worldly state by his translation to the bench of spiritual 
peers. Such a fact, it is obvious, must have limited the 
choice of the Crown, in case of vacancy among the bishops, 
f* ' to the lower or less fortunate ranks of the clergy — a limi- 
tation not to be desired or endured, had not the Crown, 
when succeeding to the rights of the Holy Chair, in- 
herited the power of granting livings in commendam. 
Yet such a power was open to grave abuse. Paulo 
Sarpi has denounced the evils which it brought upon 
Koman Catholic communities, where a Pope's bastard 
or a Cardinal's nephew, under the title of a holder in 
commendam, swept the revenues of a province into his 
private purse. 

While Coke is in his rage, the case of a living held in 
commendam comes before the King's Bench. It is a pri- 
vate cause ; but Serjeant Chibborne, in the course of his 
speech, goes out of his way to contest the King's power to 
grant commendams at all. Fearful lest the angry Chief 
Justice may pronounce a verdict touching the Crown, 
without the Crown being heard in its defence, James mounts 
a messenger for London commanding Bilson and Winwood 



1616. 
June. 



CASE OF COMMENDAMS. 219 

to attend the next sitting of the Court of King's Bench X. 15 
and report to him the arguments there used. Winwood 
being sick, Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, is the sole witness ; 
but his report alarms the King in high degree, for he 
hears Chibborne contend that the Crown has no power to 
grant livings or sees in commenclam save in cases of 
extreme need ; and that no such need can arise in Eng- 
land, where no man is bound to keep hospitality beyond 
his means. 

16. Informed by Bilson of what has passed in the King's 
Bench, James sees the gravity of his position, and com- 
mands Bacon to write and require Coke to pnt off the 
further hearing of this case until he, the King, can come 
to town and consult the judges. • This command a servant 
carries from Gray's Inn to the Lord Chief Justice's room 
in Serjeants' Inn ; when Coke, who is just setting out for 
Westminster Hall, sends his own man to Gray's Inn to 
beg that Mr. Attorney will give to each of the twelve 
judges a copy of his note. 

Coke's presence has been required in the Court of Chan- 
cery to assist in hearing a case for the Crown ; but setting 
the immediate duty of the day aside, defying the royal 
command, as conveyed through Bacon, he goes down to 
Westminster, takes his seat in the King's Bench, and calls 
the forbidden case. After a further hearing he takes 
the judges to his rooms in Serjeants' Inn, where he per- 
suades them to sign a letter to the King, throwing the 
blame of his disobedience on Bacon, whose request for a 
postponement of the trial they condemn as contrary to law 
and to the oaths of a judge. 

16. The Judges to James, April 27, 1616, S. P. 0. ; James to the Judges, 
Council Keg., June 6, 1616. 



220 FRANCIS BACON. 

X. 17. 17. James reads this letter with, amazement. If his rage 
— against Coke, and his fears of encroachment, do not lure 
1616. ^ m one ^j gooner f rom his dogs an( i deer, he pens a smart 
June. re b u k e to the judges, who, when they see how the tide 
sets, begin to feel heartily ashamed of what they have signed. 
They know, indeed, that the reasons given by Coke are 
a mere pretence; that Bacon's letter was sent by com- 
mand ; that the Crown has power by law to grant livings in 
commendam ; and that to delay the hearing until James 
could arrive in town and lay his arguments before them 
would neither interfere with justice nor disturb their oaths. 
All these points of the case the King sets forth in his 
note with unsparing ire. He ends by once again, in 
his own words and in his own name, insisting that the 
hearing shall be stayed, referring them, with a good sense 
of which he is seldom capable, to his Attorney-General for 
his opinions on particular points. 

June 6. 18. Ambling to town for the Whitsun games, he sends 
for his twelve judges to the palace. Of the many 
comedies played in that superb political theatre, few have 
been so droll as this trial of the judges by the King. All 
the great officers of state are present ; the King himself, 
Archbishop Abbott and Bishop Bilson, Lord Chancellor 
Egerton and Lord Treasurer Suffolk, Winwood Secretary 
of State, and Zouch Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, 
together with a host of inferior councillors and clerks. 
Bacon stands there to defend himself. Coke, a member 
of the Privy Council, takes his seat. 

The men whose lives have been one long duel, who have 
pleaded in the same courts, who have made love to the same 

17. Council Reg., June 6, 1616. 

18. Council Reg., June 6, 1616. 



1616. 
June 6. 



COKE BEFORE THE COUNCIL. 221 

woman, who have served in the same House of Commons, X. 18 
who for thirty-five years have been at guard and thrust, 
appear in a scene which can only end in disaster for one of 
them, perhaps in ruin for both. James opens the inquiry. 
Bilson states what he heard in the King's Bench. Bacon's 
letter and Coke's reply are put in as evidence and read. 
Eleven of the judges see their error. Falling on their knees, 
they confess their fault and implore the King's most gracious 
pardon. Coke alone, if wrong at first, has courage enough to 
be wrong at last ; maintaining that the facts of his note were 
true, and that Mr. Attorney's message was against his oath. 
James turns to his Chancellor ; but Egerton, before 
pronouncing judgment, begs, as the case involves points of 
law, that Bacon may first be heard. 

19. Bacon rises. In the portrait of Van Somers, painted 
a few weeks later, we see him as he stands confronting 
Coke. Thirty-six years have passed since he entered 
on the fag and contest of the world ; but thirty-six years 
of toil, thought, study, disappointment, and success, have 
neither soured his blood nor disturbed the beauty of his 
face. The bust of Somers is the bust of Hilyard come to 
its perfect growth. Brow broad and solid ; eye quick yet 
mild ; nose straight and strong, of the pure old English 
type ; beard trim and dainty, as of one to whom grace is 
nature ; over all the countenance a bold, soft, kindling 
light ; an infinite sense of power, and subtlety, and humour, 
unmixed with any trace of pride. 

20. Turning to the King, he shows, by proofs which seem 
superfluous, that in staying the hearing Coke would have 

19. The portrait of Van Somers is at Gorhambury. 

20. Council Keg., June 6, 1616 ; Sherborne to Carleton, June 12, 1616, 
S. P. O. ; Gerard to Carleton, June 14, 1616, S. P. O. 



1616. 
June 6. 



222 FRANCIS BACON. 

X. 20. hurt no law. broken no oath. The Lord Chief Justice 
starts to his feet ; the King's counsel, he says, may plead 
before the judges, they must not dispute with them. Bacon 
answers for his order and for himself, that a King's counsel 
is, by his office and his oath, free to proceed or declare 
against any man, against the greatest lord in the kingdom, 
even against any body of men, though they were peers and 
judges ; and he demands from the King's justice that this 
spirt of bad temper and worse law shall be withdrawn. 
James sides with his Attorney-General, and Coke has to 
eat his words. 

The Lord-Chancellor now asks that the oath of a judge 
may be read ; and when Yelverton has done this, he pro- 
nounces judgment wholly against Coke. In Egerton's 
verdict the judges all concur ; promising for themselves to 
respect all future messages from the Crown. Coke alone 
answers that he will do what he shall find fit for a judge. 

The fall of this arrogant man is soon noised in the 
Strand and at St. Paul's. 

June 9. 21. Bacon is sworn a member of the Privy Council ; as 

in every stage of his rise, without a bribe. The very first 

. act of this new Councillor, who, on grounds of humanity, is 

moving heaven and earth to save a couple of Papists from 

the gallows, is to induce the favourite and his master to 

June 16. restore the famous Puritan preacher Doctor Burgess to his 
ministry in the Church. Burgess has long been silenced. 
Many congregations wish to hear him ; among others, the 
Honourable Society of Gray's Inn. Bacon prevails, and 
the thunders of the great preacher are again heard at 
St. Paul's Cross. 

21. Council Keg., June 9, 1616 ; Montagu, xiii. 233 ; Carew to Roe, 
Jan. 18, 1617, S. P. O. ; Chamberlain to Carleton, July 5, 1617, S. P. O. 






1616. 
June 30. 



FALL OF COKE. 223 

22. Bacon is nominated one of a commission, with the X. 22. 
Lord Treasurer, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and other 
ministers, to consider a plan for raising funds by selling 
the old feudal right of homage and by disafforesting the 
distant and unprofitable Crown-lands. 

More than sufficient offences are soon discovered against 
Coke, frauds, contempts, and disobediences, to ensure a 
condemnation either in the Star Chamber or in any court 
over which the Crown can name the judge. When he 
hears of this investigation into his past life, the bully 
of Westminster Hall lowers his tone. Not that his 
course on the bench has been impure ; it has, in fact, 
as all the world knows, been ostentatiously the reverse 
of impure ; yet the practice of all the courts is so 
unsafe, the system of fees so lax, that no man on the 
bench can stand up against an accusation brought by the 
Crown. No judge on the bench knows better than Coke 
that to be tried for a Crown offence is to be condemned. 
In the most grovelling key he prays to be spared the 
shame of a public trial; on his knees he implores the 
Council to protect him; saying, and very truly saying, 
that any man in place, however high his state, however 
clean his hands, may be crushed by an indictment laid in 
the royal name. Again and again he appears before the 
Privy Council, under his rival's eyes, in the same igno- 
minious attitude, begging for mercy in the same miserable 
tone. 

The woman who in his prosperity was the torment of July 
his life no sooner finds him grovelling on his knees before 
men deaf to his groans, and the savings of his long prac- 

22. Council "to the Commissioners, June 30, 1616, S. P. O. ; Council 
Keg., June 26, 30, 1616 ; Chamberlain to Carleton, June 22, 1616, S. P. O. ; 
Sherborne to Carleton, June 29, 1616, S. P. 0. 



224 FKANCIS BACON. 

X. 22. tice at the bar menaced with fine and forfeit, than she 
bounds to his side, makes his suit her own, worries her 
kinsmen for help, besieges the Queen with petitions, and 
declares that, come evil or come good to her husband, she 
will share his fate. 

Oct. 23. Though Anne puts forth her weakness in his cause, 

Coke is degraded from the Council, forbidden to travel 
circuit, commanded to revise his Reports. Yilliers against 
him, the poor Queen is snubbed : and Lady Hatton, in place 
of conciliating those who might help her suit, insults the 
favourite's mother, and on her complaint gets sent away 
from court. Coke humbles his pride, confesses his fault, 
nay, darkens his fame as a jurist and a judge by stooping, on 
the King's demand, to alter his Law Reports ; a confession 
of guilt if his cases are false, a dishonest compliance if he 
believes them true. Even this last concession is made in vain. 
When stripped of his office and deposed from the bench, 
his wife, who was going to make his cause her own, packs 
up her furniture and plate, leaps into her coach, and leaves 
him to his loneliness and rage. His seat in the King's 
Bench is offered to Bacon and declined. Sir Henry 
Montagu, Recorder of London, a man of very great wealth 
and very high abilities as a lawyer, grandson of Bluff King 
Hal's famous Lord Chief Justice, and founder of the ducal 
line of Manchester, gets his place. 

Kov. 24. The fall of Coke throws light into the Tower. Sir 

Thomas Monson gains the liberty of that fortress. Sure 

23. Villiers to Bacon, Oct. 3, 1616, Lambetli MSS. 936 ; Williams to 
Carleton, July 3, 1616, S. P. O. ; Chamberlain to Carleton, July 6, Oct. 26, 
Nov. 9, 14, 23, 1616, S. P. O. ; Sherborne to Carleton, July 11, Oct. 5, 
1616, S. P. O. ; Winwood to Carleton, July 13, 1616, S. P. O. ; Egerton's 
Speech to Montagu, Nov. 18, 1616, S. P. O. ; Grant Book, 197, 198. 

24. Council Peg., Aug. 10, 1616 ; Bacon to James, Dec. 7, 1616, S. P. O. ; 
Statement of the Case of Sir Thomas Monson, Feb. 12, 1617, S. P. 0, 



Nov. 
1616. 



ADVISES PAEDON FOE STE T. MONSON. 225 

that Monson ought not to be tried, since it has become X. 24. 
improbable that he could be convicted and impossible that 
he could be hung, Bacon is not the less sure that for the 
King's credit and for Monson's own safety he ought not to 
be merely set free. He proposes, therefore, with the full 
concurrence of Sir Henry Yelverton, that a pardon shall 
be granted under the Seal, reciting Monson's plea of inno- 
cence, the dubious proofs against him, and the gracious 
clemency of the King. Egerton backs tins compromise ; 
for he too, though himself a convert from the Church of 
Rome, believes with Bacon that a gentleman may be a 
Papist without being a traitor. In his own name and that 
of Yelverton, Bacon communicates this plan to James : — 

Bacon to King James. 

7th of December, 1616. Dec. 7, 

It may please your most excellent Majesty, 

According to your pleasure, signified unto me, your 
Attorney, by word of mouth, we have considered of the 
state of Sir Thomas Monson's case, and what is fit further 
to be done in it, and we are of opinion— first, that it is 
altogether unfit to have a proceeding to a trial, both 
because the evidence itself (for so much as we know of it) 
is conjectural, as also for that to rip up those matters now 
will neither be agreeable to the justice nor to the mercy 
formally used by your Majesty towards others ; secondly, 
to do nothing in it is neither safe for the gentleman, nor 
honourable (as we conceive) for your Majesty, whose care 
of justice useth not to faint or become weary in the latter 
end. Therefore we are of opinion that it is a case fit for 
your Majesty's pardon, as upon doubtful evidence, and that 
Sir Thomas Monson plead the same publicly, with such 

Q 



226 FRANCIS BACON. 

X. 24. protestations of his innocency as he thinks good, and so 
1616 the matter may come to a regular and just period, wherein 

Dec. 7. * ne vei T reading of the pardon, which shall recite the 
evidence to be doubtful and conjectural, added to his own 
protestations, is as much for the reputation of the gentle- 
man as we think convenient, considering how things have 
formerly passed. Hereupon we have advised with the 
Lord Chancellor, whom we find of the same opinion. All 
which, nevertheless, we, in all humbleness, submit to your 
Majesty's better judgment. 

Your Majesty's most humble 

and most bounden servants, 

Fe. Bacon, 
Henky Yelvekton. 

The advice is welcome. A pardon, drawn up in this 
xeb.12. gengej p asses under the Seal. Monson, brought up at the 
bar of the King's Bench and this paper read to him, 
declares his innocence once more, protests that his pardon 
should be read as evidence of his innocence, not of his guilt. 
Montagu, now Chief Justice, tells him it may be read in 
this sense, and Monson with a joyful heart goes home from 
the Tower. 

25. Egerton is sick. Though he will not give up the 
Seals, as Villiers presses him to do, while he can sign his 
name, he begins to divest himself of the minor offices and 
responsibilities of the world ; among other changes yielding 
the Stewardship of St. Albans to the friend who now sits by 
his bed, lightening his pains and cares, and whom he, like 
all the world, has sealed for his successor in the Court of 

25. Add. MSS. 19, 402 ; Sherborne to Carleton, Feb. 8, 1617, S. P. 0. ; 
Council Reg., Feb. 2, 1617. 



1617. 
Feb. 12. 



KUMOUKED OFFSPRING OF ARABELLA STUART. 227 

Chancery. Among the public affairs in which Bacon is X. 25 
employed are, the Disorders in our Trade with Spain, and 
a Eeport touching a child supposed to have been left by 
Lady Arabella Stuart. The first is referred to Bacon alone, 
with power to collect evidence and to offer remedies for the 
wrong. The second concerns the King more nearly than 
the murder of English crews, the confiscation of English 
goods. This story of a royal child he refers to four com- 
missioners, the highest functionaries of the state — Abbott, 
Suffolk, Winwood, and Bacon ; Bacon, on whom the burthen 
of inquiry falls, representing the great lawyer now lying 
sick at York House. 

26. After Lady Arabella's death in the Tower a whisper Feb. 2. 
flew abroad that her romantic marriage had not been 
altogether barren ; that she had given birth to a child 
while confined in Sir Thomas Parry's house at Lambeth ; 
and that this heir of the Seymours was still alive. The 
story' has a deep and romantic interest. If there be such a 
child, it stands very near the throne — uniting, as it must, 
in one head the rival claims of the Seymour and Lennox 
lines of descent from Henry the Seventh ; therefore a rival, 
as some folks think, to the King's own children, and one 
who may become truly formidable should the rickety 
Prince of Wales not live. Such a birth was not unlikely 
in itself. The Lady Arabella was only thirty-six when she 
fell in love and secretly gave her hand to William Seymour. 
They were married weeks before their amour was discovered. 
Even when parted by force, their love and wit found means 
for meeting. Even when Seymour was in the Tower, 
he so far won upon his jailor by his youth, his misery, 
or his gold, that he was frequently allowed to go up 

26. Council Reg., Feb. 2, 16, 1617. 

Q 2 



1617. 
Feb. 2. 



228 FKANCIS BACON. 

X. 26. the river and see his wife. Nothing, therefore, in the tale 
of a child having been born to all this love appears impro- 
bable to men who fear or hate the King, while the motives 
for concealment, if it has been born, are clear to all. 
James is profoundly moved. A new Perkin Warbeck 
menaces his throne. 

True or false, the story is a serious fact for James and 
for his dynasty : not less grave for them if false than true ; 
unless it can be wholly and for ever rooted out from the 
minds of men. Hence the commission. For a time the 
mystery defies even Bacon's subtlety of search and proof. 
It is always hard to prove a negative — most hard in such a 
case as this. The commissioners may convince themselves ; 
they have to convince a credulous world, at the risk of 
leaving that world open to seduction by any knave who 
may choose to play his head against a crown. They send 
for Seymour, who knows nothing or will tell them nothing. 
They send for Sir John Keys and Doctor Mountford, 
physicians to the royal lady. They question Edward 
Kirton and Edward Eeeves, her body servants. None of 
these will own to knowledge of the birth of any child. 
Such evidence is, however, far from decisive. Where are 
Lady Arabella's waiting-women ? 

It is known that, while imprisoned in Parry's house, 
Arabella's waiting-woman was called Ann Bradshaw. Ann 
has dropped out of sight, though no one thinks that she is 
dead. Where is she ? The Seymours don't know. Her 
old friends and fellow servants don't know. Such a fact is 
of itself suspicious. Is the missing maid watching over the 
missing child ? There must be an end of these questions. 
If alive, and between the four seas, Ann must be found ; 
for on her testimony hang the chances of a civil war. 

A search through every shire from Exe to Tweed dis- 



1617. 
Feb. 2. 



EECEIVES THE SEALS. 229 

covers her in Duffield — an obscure village lost among the X. 26, 
snows of the Peak. Though old, full of aches and pains, 
her memory is good : she remembers everything about her 
unhappy mistress, was with her day and night in Parry's 
house, and is positive she never had a child. The local 
magistrates dare not jolt her off to London through the 
winter cold, the doctors saying she would die on the road. 
A message speeds to Bacon. Not an hour is to be lost ; 
the weal of millions hangs on the words of this sick creature ; 
so he mounts for Duffield Sir Clement Edmondes, a trusty 
Clerk of the Privy Council, to see the woman and take her 
important evidence on oath. Clement sends in his report. 
The tale sworn by the waiting-woman convinces the com- 
missioners and the Council that the rumour of a young 
Seymour, born of Lady Arabella, being in existence is a 
lie. In witness of this inquiry, and of this result, James 
causes an elaborate statement of the facts to be inserted in 
the Council Kegister, signed by George Abbott, Thomas 
Howard, Kalph Winwood, and Francis Bacon. The search 
which satisfies the Council seems to satisfy mankind. It is, 
indeed, amazing that, during all the troubles and illusions 
of the succeeding forty years, no one ever assumed the 
character of Lady Arabella's son. 

27. Four weeks after closing this delicate inquiry Bacon Mar. 7. 
receives the Seals. Egerton's love bears fruit; but the 
risks of failure in his suit have indeed been great, for 
Buckingham makes no secret of his wish to ruin the old 
Chancellor and sell his place. While the favourite haggles 
with aspirants for the office about its price, the King himself 
puts the Seals into Bacon's hands. 

27. Council Keg., Mar. 7, 24, 1617 ; Grant Book, 200 ; Chamberlain to 
Carleton, Mar. 15, 1617, S. P. O. ; Commission to Abbott, Bacon, and 
others, Mar. 17, 1617, S. P. O. 



230 FRANCIS BACON. 



X. 27. 



1617. 
Mar. 7. 



Biding down to York House, he thanks his old friend, 
and in his Majesty's name presents him with the patent of 
an Earl. He now turns to the Court of Chancery, not in 
despair at the long arrears, but with confident sense of his 
power to conquer the vast accumulation of work. The 
rules which he lays down, the spirit in which he decides, 
are beyond all praise. Nor do the labours of his Court, 
the ceremonial of his rank, and the sittings of the Council, 
consume his strength. He instructs Buckingham in the 
arts of government. He toils at his Novum Organum. 
Within a week of his investiture the King leaves London 
Mar. 17. for the Northern Kingdom, calling Bacon to the exercise 
of very extraordinary powers. In commission with Pem- 
broke, Suffolk, and a single secretary, he receives power 
to pardon able-bodied offenders under sentence of death, 
save only those convicted of rape, burglary, witchcraft, and 
wilful murder, and send them over sea. In commission 
with Abbott and others, he is authorised to pass securities 
for loans, to issue proclamations, to conduct the Irish 
business, to perfect the ecclesiastical commission, and 
generally to conduct the government of the realm. Yet, in 
spite of this enormous addition to his active duties, he 
clears off the whole arrears of Chancery causes by the end 
of June. 



RAGE OF COKE. 231 



CHAPTEE XL 



LOKD CHANCELLOR. 



1. In striding over Coke's head to the Mace and Seals, XI. 1. 
Bacon puts the crown to his many offences against that — 
wealthy and vindictive foe. Their lives have been spent in 16 17, 
a daily contest for rank, love, place, and power. Up to the ^' 

present year Coke has been able to keep in front. He 
made more money, he won Lady Hatton, he first got office 
under the Crown. He went up to the Common Pleas 
while Bacon was fighting for his promotion at the bar. 
Before the great philosopher was commissioned as Attorney- 
General, the great jurist had been seated on the King's 
Bench. For the three years and four months that 
Bacon, as Attorney, waited in the Council ante-room, Coke 
sat at the board. The scene is now changed, the cha- 
racters reversed. Within a few weeks Coke has been 
degraded from the Council to make way for Bacon, and 
reduced from the King's Bench that his rival may feel 
the insolent joy of refusing to accept his place. The 
humiliation has now been capped by Bacon filching from 
him, at the very moment of his negotiation with Yilliers, 
the Mace and Seals, without paying for them one shilling 
of those irregular sums which he himself was told he 
must lay down. Such a success enrages the miser even 
more than it galls the man. 

1. Council Reg., Nov. 4, 1613; Yelverton to Bacon, Sept. 3, 1617, 
Lambeth MSS. 836* 



232 FKANCIS BACON. 

XI. 2. 2. How can he drag this rival down ? The way is but 
— too easy. Grain the favourite. Virtue is no protection 
to men in] power. He has been thrown. Egerton only 
^' escapes an ignominious fall by the approach of death. 

The story of Egerton's latter days has never yet been 
told. As an illustration of the time, it is in the highest 
degree important for a clear comprehension of his suc- 
cessor's fall. 

As Egerton grew old a host of lawyers and eccle- 
siastics began to crave the Seals; conspicuous among 
these were Bilson and Bennett, Hobart and Coke. The 
Great Seal, though held like the White Staff during 
pleasure, changed hands so rarely that the possession 
was regarded as one for life. Pickering, Hatton, Brom- 
ley, Nicholas Bacon, kept the Seals to the last, as North- 
ampton, Salisbury, Dorset, and Burghley kept the Staff. 
The rule applied to every office in the Household and 
the State. Now this appearance of a permanent pos- 
session gave to each holder of office a vested right in it, 
which had a market value. No man ever yielded his 
place without being paid for it, any more than a colonel of 
the line gives up his commission without his price. Death 
only could deprive him. As Egerton would . not die 
though he had held the Seals longer than any Chancellor 
since the Conquest, nor yield his place except on rea- 
sonable terms of surrender, those who meant to make a 
purse by the transfer began to brood over the possibility 
of forcing him to yield by means of a criminal prosecu- 
tion. A sentence in the House of Lords would be legal 
death. Once it were pronounced the Seals would fall into 
the King's gift. Tins was a new and perilous game to 

2. Sherborne to Carleton, Feb. 23, 1617, S. P. O. ; Lovelace to Carleton, 
Mar. 11, 1617, S. P. O. 



PLOT TO RUIN EGERTON. 233 

play ; but the plan seemed easy, the profits vast. A trial XI. 2. 
might be made. Any old lawyer, learned in the vices of 
the times, could get up an accusation. Buckingham could 
secure a majority in the House of Lords. The temptations 
which drew Buckingham into this odious and criminal 
course were very great. Sir John Bennett offered for the 
Seals no less a sum than thirty thousand pounds. 

3. This scheme of a criminal information quickened into 
life on Egerton's refusal to pass under the Seal some patents 
in which the Villiers family had a share. Famous among 
these was a grant to Sir Giles Mompesson for the manu- 
facture of gold and silver thread. Everybody wore lace. 
In the comic writers of James's reign, in Jonson, in Webster, 
in Massinger, the young gallants strut in lace — not in the 
tawdry stuff sold by Autolycus as a present from country 
lads to country lasses — but in glinting silver and gold; 
the metals dropping in threads from the ruff, or wrought 
into the doublet and hose, the cloak and cap. Venice could 
not supply the want. The price of gold and silver lace ran 
high; and the profits of the trade all went abroad. A 
Licenser of Inns, Sir Giles Mompesson, a man of energy 
and wealth, conceived a scheme for introducing this profit- 
able manufacture into England. There were serious diffi- 
culties. Silver and gold were scarce ; sometimes not to be 
bought except on ruinous terms. The patent under which 
he was to work must not alone protect his trade, but allow 
him to take up gold and silver for his need, even the coin 
of the realm. By giving two of Buckingham's brothers 
a share in the business, Mompesson hoped to secure pro- 
tection for his enterprise. 

3. Sign Manuals, vi. 109 ; Com. Jour., i. 530-576. 



1617. 
July. 



234 FKANCIS BACON. 

XL 4. 4. Blind to the lights of trade, Egerton refused to 
seal this grant. Not that he perceived and lamented the 
true evil of monopolies ; every profession was then a guild ; 
and without a monopoly there could be no trade. The 
grocer, the perfumer, the vintner, the tailor, was each in- 
vested in a charter or a patent. Egerton, during his long 
reign as Chancellor, passed hundreds of patents, some 
of them far more mischievous than the one for enabling 
the London spinners to rival their Venetian brethren in 
the production of gold and silver thread. His repugnance 
to it sprang from the contempt of an old man for new 
fripperies of dress and show, and from a fear that Mompes- 
son would ruin the Crown by withdrawing the coinage from 
circulation into trade. 

5. Buckingham was furious. Urged by his own vexation 
and by his complaining brothers, he swore to ruin the old 
Chancellor. Agents sneaked about the Inns of Court 
speaking evil of the great lawyer, now on his bed of death, 
provoking all who had suffered wrongs, or who fancied they 
had suffered wrongs, in his court, to rise up against the 
tyrant. Men soon answered to the call. A blameless life, 
a sick bed, were no protection against this outrage. One said 
he had given money into the court ; another said he had given 
a ring, a cabinet, a piece of plate. In substance and form 
these tales were true, in spirit and intention they were false. 
Charges enough were gathered : charges more numerous, 
said Sir William Lovelace, than those which had recently 
crushed Coke ; charges as flimsy and as fatal, I may add, 
as those which four years later served to overwhelm 
Egerton's successor. Buckingham sent to the sick man's 

4. Chamberlain to Carleton, Mar. 8, 1617, S. P. 0. 

5. Lovelace to Carleton, Mar. 11, 1617, S. P. O. 



CALUMNIES OF COKE. 235 

room the news of this flagitious inquisition and its tri- XI. 5. 
umphant close ; it is greatly to be feared that the blow — 
broke the old man's heart. 1617. 

July. 

6. It needs no magician to see that he who nearly slew 
Egerton might just as easily slay the successor of Egerton. 
Buckingham is cheated of his profit; for though Bacon 
pays to Egerton eight thousand pounds for the surrender 
of his legal rights, not a shilling of this money flows into 
the favourite's purse. The Villiers people are not pleased 
with a Chancellor who refuses to push their fortunes and 
feed their pride ; nor is Buckingham a man to forget 
that, if Egerton had been chased into the House of Lords, 
as Coke had been into the Star Chamber, he might have 
put into his own pocket from the transaction a good many 
thousand pounds. 

7. The loss is great. It is Coke's business to show Villiers 
how it may be recovered. Bacon is not robust nor likely 
to live long. He works too much, and lives too well, for 
vegetable length of days. Gout racks his joints; being 
the first beggar, as he jests, who ever had it. If he dies, 
well ; if not, he may be ruined. Coke, who begins by collect- 
ing scandals against him, whispers to the favourite that the 
new Chancellor is no true friend to him ; that he is not 
zealous for the advancement of Sir Christopher Villiers 
and Sir John Villiers ; that he has been already false 
to Somerset, and may end by playing false with his 
Lordship. Buckingham lies open to such hints ; his family 
more open to the direct persuasion of angels and double 

6. Chamberlain to Carleton, Mar. 11, 1617, S. P. O. ; Gerard to Carleton, 
Mar. 20, 1617, S. P. O. 

7. -Telverton to Bacon, Sept. 3, 1617, Lambeth MSS. 936 ; Carleton to 
Chamberlain, May 24, 1617, S. P. O. 



236 FKANCIS BACON. 

XI. 7. angels. Coke gets Lady Buckingham on his side. If he 
could only part with his hoards, his day of revenge might 
be near ; happily he cannot pay down his money even to 
*-" assuage the rancour of his heart. 

He thinks of a plan by which he may gain his end, yet 
save his pelf. 

8. A daughter has been born to Coke of his second 
wife. This wife and he never pulled together, and of 
late their wrangles have been louder than at first. Their 
marriage was a scrape, their wedded life has been a 
quarrel and a jest. She disdains to bear his name, she 
slams her door in his face. She gives entertainments 
in Holborn] from which he and his friends are inso- 
lently shut out. Their tastes are in the strongest degree 
opposed. 

He is penurious, she profuse. He loves folios and a 
farthing candle ; she lights and revels, masques and plays. 
By day and night a rout of fiddlers, dancers, wizards, 
lovers, aud magicians pours through the galleries of her 
great mansion looking on the Fleet. Coke slinks in shame 
from the sight of all this devilry to his den in Serjeants' 
Inn. Their misery makes the sport of wits and gallants ; 
while in their quarrels and their unhappiness Bacon 
(though he has not himself escaped the common lot — a 
mother-in-law) has nevertheless, in his own modest and 
tranquil home, good reason to thank heaven night and day 
for his escape from such a wife. 

9. The child of this dismal pair is blossoming into a 

8. Jonson's Metamorphosed Gypsies ; Bankes's Story of Corffe Castle, 
35-44 ; Lady Hatton to Cecil, undated Papers, xl. 6, S. P. O. 

9. Jonson's Gypsies Metamorphosed ; Sherborne to Carleton, Dec. 7, 

1616, S. P. O. ; Chamberlain to Carleton, Dec. 21, 1616 ; June 4, July 19, 

1617, S. P. O. ; Winwood to Lake, May 27, 1617, S. P. O. 



FKANCES COKE. 237 

beauty and a toast, whose sensuous loveliness Jonson XI. 9. 

depicts in some of his most luscious lines : — 

1617. 

Though your either cheek discloses July* 

Mingled baths of milk and roses ; 
Though your lips be banks of blisses, 

Where he plants and gathers kisses ; 
And yourself the reason why 

Wisest men of love may die ! 

Yet the beauty of her cheek and lips is the smallest 
part of Frances Coke's charms. As Lady Hatton's only 
child, she is heiress of Hatton House, of Corffe Castle, of 
Purbeck Isle. Coke privately offers this wealthy girl to 
Buckingham's mother for one of her pauper sons. A 
bargain is soon struck. Sir John Yilliers is to take her 
with twenty thousand pounds dower and a settlement of 
two thousand marks a year. Buckingham is to pardon all 
Coke's offences, and use his power to restore him to high 
place and confer on him high rank. 

To this huckstering Frances Coke is much averse, her 
mother still more averse. The young lady hates Sir John, 
a man old enough to be her father, without person or 
talents, and poor as a church mouse. Her mother huffs at 
a contract made at her expense, without her leave. That 
Coke should propose a scheme is enough to make her 
loathe it. But in such a scheme as this match with Sir 
John Yilliers she has better grounds for hesitation than a 
woman's whim. She very justly fears the tenure of a 
favourite's place. Has she not witnessed Somerset's golden 
rise and stormy end ? A twinge of gout, a saucy word, a 
prettier cheek, may turn the King's eye another way. 
What then ? With Buckingham's fall may come down all 
his house. Even now sharp eyes are turned on the rising 
star of Lord Mordaunt. Some note how James of late 



238 FRANCIS BACON. 

XI. 9. has begun to ogle a youth named Coney. Bets are made 
that Buckingham's fortunes are on the wane. Lady 
Hatton will not hear of such a match for her only child. 
*' Husband and wife dispute and quarrel, as they have 
always done over lesser things ; and when the Lord 
Keeper and the Council, anxious for peace, interpose be- 
tween them, it is only, as results soon prove, to procure a 
reconciliation in which Coke tries to deceive Lady Hatton 
and Lady Hatton succeeds in deceiving Coke. Each plots 
to outwit the other ; Coke bent on winning the good will 
of Buckingham; his wife on disposing of her daughter 
and her property as she herself thinks best. Each 
plays the spy, makes friends among the servants, gets up 
factions in the house. Her people take Lady Hatton's 
part, more because they scorn the penurious old cur- 
mudgeon i than because they like his prodigal and imperious 
wife. 

She steals a march upon him while he sleeps. Putting 
her child into a coach at dead of night, she slips away to 
Oatlands, where she hides from pursuit in her cousin Sir 
Edward Withipole's house. 

.10. These domestic broils occur while James and Buck- 
ingham are in the north : setting up organs in churches, 
wrangling over Kirk discipline, consecrating bishops in the 
land of Knox. The Lord Keeper is acting as a sort of 
regent. To him, therefore, in Council, Coke, when he has 
traced his wife and child, applies for warrants of arrest. 
Bacon refuses. Coke flies to Sir John's mother ; his 
wicked wife, he tells this lady, has stolen his child, has 
poisoned her affections towards Sir John, and means to 

10. Council Beg,, July 11, 14, 1617 ; James to Bacon, July 25, 1617, in 
Birch, 133. 



LADY HATTON'S APPEAL AGAINST COKE. 239 

carry her into France to avoid the match with her lady- XI. 10. 
ship's son. — 

Her cupidity aroused, the great lady writes to com- 
mand the Lord Keeper to arm Coke with full powers *' 
of search and arrest. Bacon again refuses. What he 
feels it right to deny in one quarter, he has courage 
to deny in another ; though aware that his duty may be 
represented as an insult to Villiers, as an usurpation to 
the King. 

His refusal to do wrong at her bidding transforms Lady 
Buckingham into a ruthless and inexorable foe. 

11. Safe in the strength of his great patroness, Coke, 
defying the Lord Keeper and the Privy Council, arms a 
dozen of his servants, rides down to Oatlands, runs a beam 
against Withipole's door, and, smashing into his wife's 
retreat, without warrant of arrest, without a constable, 
he seizes the fainting girl, tosses her into his coach, and 
hurries her away to Stoke. 

A universal howl pursues the perpetrator of this outrage 
on the public peace. The Council meet to consider this 
violation of domicile. As they are rising for the day, 
Lady Hatton raves to the door. How can they decline to 
see her ? She is a woman and in distress ; she is of kin 
by blood or marriage to the Lord Keeper, to the Lord 
Treasurer, to half the Council ; she is pleading in her right. 
When admitted to the Council chamber, she describes with 
consummate art the outrage she has suffered, the confine- 
ment of her daughter in a lonely house, her sickness to 
the point of death, and she implores the lords, as only 
mothers robbed of their children can implore, that the 

11. Chamberlain to Carleton, July 19, 1617, S. P. 0.; Gerard to Carleton 
July 22, 1617, S. P. 0. ; Council Keg., July 14, 1617. 



240 FRANCIS BACON. 

XI. 11. child may be sent for, that her story may be heard, that a 
— physician may see her lest she die. 

The Council grant her prayer. An officer of the court 
u y* rides down to Stoke, takes the girl from her imprisonment, 
and lodges her in town. 

July 21. 12. The Lord Keeper summons Coke to attend the 
Council and answer for this breach of the King's peace. 
With an insolence which his secret understanding with the 
favourite's kin makes safe for him, Coke declares that he 
has done his duty, that his wife meant to break the match 
with Sir John Villiers, that she would have carried his 
daughter away to France, that she herself traduced and 
set on her servants to traduce Sir John. Bacon, who may 
object to a marriage between Frances Coke and Sir John 
Villiers — a marriage projected for his own humiliation and 
for the recovery of power by the late Chief Justice — feels, as 
one of the Commissioners governing the realm, the gravest 
objection to such acts as those of Coke. He replies, there- 
fore, in the name of the Counci], that Villiers, as a gentle- 
man worthy of the young lady, would have sought her in 
a noble and religious fashion, not with a gang of armed 
men, in a midnight brawl, in contempt of natural and 
statute law. 

Yelverton, the Attorney-General, declares that the late 
Lord Chief Justice, in violating Withipole's house without 
warrant or constable, has grievously offended against the 
law. None of the Council, certainly not the Lord Keeper, 
has any wish to weigh upon the irascible old man ; but 
when he fails to justify by witnesses any one allegation 
against his wife, they are compelled to file an information 

12. Council Reg., July 21, 1617 ; Chamberlain to Carleton, June 4, 
1617, S. P. 0. ; Yelverton to Bacon, Sept. 3, 1617, Lambeth MSS. 936. 



1617. 



COKE'S SUBMISSION. 241 

against him in the Star Chamber for breach of the peace, XI. 12. 
and allow his daughter the shelter of the Attorney-General's 
house. 

Coke shudders at tins order for his appearance in the 
Star Chamber. Kecently fined four thousand pounds in 
that court for taking bail of a pirate, he fears lest a second 
accusation should end in a second fine. He cannot count 
on either gratitude or wisdom in the Villiers people. These 
thriftless adventurers may think it safer to take his money 
than wait for the chance of obtaining his wife's broad lands. 
He finds it wiser to defer to the Privy Council. With a 
rancorous animosity in his heart towards Bacon, and with 
fiery rage against Yelverton, he bends so far as to undergo 
a pretended reconciliation with his wife. Bacon joyfully 
announces to the King that peace is made. 

13. A line of writers closing in Lord Campbell repre- July 25. 
sents Bacon as first selfishly striving to thwart the match ; 
then, finding Buckingham bent on it, as plotting with 
Lady Hatton by underground and criminal practices to 
defeat it ; next, after bearing with abject spirit the most 
provoking taunts and threats from the favourite, as meanly 
condescending to eat his words and to forward a match 
which he must have detested with all his soul. The 
dates supplied by the Council Kegister correct these 
errors. Bacon's first note to Buckingham on the match 
has the date of July twelfth, his first note to the King that 
of July twenty-fifth. Before the earlier date, Lady Hatton 
and her daughter ran away, the ex-Chief Justice broke 
into Withipole's house, the Council met to consider his 
offence, and Clement Edmondes, their clerk, took charge 

13. Bacon to Buckingham, July 12, 25, 1617 ; Bacon to James, July 25, 
1617. 



1617. 



242 FRANCIS BACON. 

XL 13. of the girl. Before the later date, and before a single 
word was heard from Buckingham in answer, Bacon 
calmed the outrage, reconciled husband and wife, and 
^ ' ' restored Frances Coke to her father's house. 

14. After all this was done, he wrote to Buckingham 
and the King the reasons which, in his opinion, made a 
marriage between John Villiers and Frances Coke un- 
desirable : the refusal of Lady Hatton, the dependency of 
the young girl on her mother, the quarrelsome temper of 
the two parents, the notoriety and scandal of their domestic 
feuds, the disapproval of leading men in the Government, 
the recent disgrace of Coke, the divisions which his return 
to the Council would bring with it — sage and honest reasons, 
one and all, which received the most prompt and signal 
justification from events. But Buckingham was blind. 
The King himself forbad Bacon to oppose the favourite's 
schemes of family aggrandisement. Unable either to resist 
his Majesty's commands, or to close his eyes on the coming 
evil, he accepted the duty laid upon him : " For my Lord 
of Buckingham, I had rather go against his mind than 
against his good. Your Majesty I must obey." 

Oct. 15. Lady Hatton, on publishing a prior contract between 

her daughter and the young Lord Oxford, is put into arrest, 
and the marriage of Sir John and Frances celebrated 
with regal pomp. It begins in misery to end in shame. 
Lady Hatton resists every persuasion to appear, nor is there 
a single Cecil present at the rite. James makes the bride- 

14. Vere to Carleton, Aug. 12, 1617, S. P. O. ; Gerard to Carleton, 
Aug. 18, 1617, S. P. O. 

15. Council Peg., Sept. 24, 1617 ; Obligations and Oaths of Frances 
Coke to become the Wife of Henry Vere, July 10, 1617, S. P. O. ; Gerard 
to Carleton, Aug. 18, 1617, S. P. O. ; Herbert to Carleton, Oct. 6, 1617, 
S. P. 0. ; Vere to Carleton, Oct. 20, 1617, S. P. 0. 



1617. 
Oct. 



QUARRELS OF THE PAKINGTONS. * 243 

groom Viscount Purbeck ; but he cannot make the young XI. 15. 
bride love or respect a man to whom she has been sold. 
Coke is content. To the chagrin of the Lord Keeper, to the 
terror of Yelverton, he returns to the Privy Council — a 
lawyer out of work — the situation in which his enmity can 
oftenest wound and his activity oftenest thwart the detested 
rival who holds the Seals. Expecting a coronet, Coke 
chooses for himself the title of Lord Stoke. He believes, 
as the world believes, that his rise will be the signal for 
Bacon's fall; yet such are the suavity and zeal, the 
splendour and success of the new Lord Keeper — such his 
popularity on the bench and at Whitehall — that, in spite 
of new scandals brought upon him and his family by Sir 
John and Lady Pakington, he is able to defy the malice 
of his enemies and to soar above every storm. 

16. When her daughter's husband received the Great 
Seal, Lady Pakington supposed that her day of deliverance 
from Sir John was at hand. The lusty knight, who has 
sunk her rents in his brine-pits and fish-ponds, has now 
grown old, verging on seventy years of age, while she is 
still young and hale. But time, which slackens his thews, 
has left untamed his temper and his pride. The mother 
of a Lord Keeper's wife can surely get justice done to her 
at last against the tyrant ! She appeals to the law, and 
brings him before the Court of High Commission, where 
her cold easy manner tells in her behalf, and Ins fluster 
and violence get him sent to jail and put under lock 
and guard. To Bacon's deep mortification, and despite 
his strenuous efforts to avoid the case, this domestic broil 
is referred to him. 

Under trials of excessive difficulty and delicacy, he 

16. Dora. Papers James the First, xcii. 88. 

E 2 



1617. 
Oct. 



244 FKANCIS BACON. 

XI. 16. bears himself between husband and wife, in this miserable 
stage, in a way to extort the praise of even those news- 
writers and gossips who are in other matters the harshest 
critics of his life. He tells Lady Pakington she is in the 
wrong and that she ought to yield. He warns her against 
the hope of finding in him a lenient judge so long as she 
follows her cold unbending course. 

This is the testimony of an unfriendly hand : 

Chamberlain to Carleton. 

July 5, 1617. 

There be great wars betwixt Sir John and his 
lady, who sues him in the High Commission ; where, by 
his own wilfulness, she hath some advantage of him and 
keeps him in prison. But the Lord Keeper deals very 
honourably in the matter, which, though he could not com- 
pound being referred to him, yet he carries himself so 
indifferently that he wishes her to yield, and tells her 
plainly and publicly that she must look for no countenance 
from him as long as she follows this course. 

1618. 17. Notwithstanding these scandals and vexations in his 

Jan. own family, the Lord Keeper rises in power, expands in 
fame. In January, 1618, he attains the higher grade of 
Chancellor. In July of the same year he becomes a Peer. 
His slanderers sink beneath his feet. No severity seems 
to the Privy Council too great for those, however high in 
rank, who menace his person or dispute his justice. For 
a saucy word they send Lord Clifton to the Fleet : for a 
complaint against one of his verdicts they commit Lady 
Ann Blount to the Marshalsea. In 1620 he publishes his 

17. Council Eeg., Dec. 30, 1617, Mar. 17, 27, 1618 ; Grant Book, 241, 
283 ; Herbert to Carleton, Dec. 30, 1617, S. P. O. ; Chamberlain to Carle- 
ton, Feb. 3, 1621, S. P. 0, 



1618. 
Jan. 



HEIGHT OF HIS FAME. 245 

Novum Organum — a book which has in it the germs of XI. 17. 
more power and good to man than any other work not of 
Divine authorship in the world. He is now at the height 
of earthly fame. First layman in his own country, first 
philosopher in Europe, what is wanting to his felicity ? 
Neither power, nor popularity, nor titles, nor love, nor 
fame, nor obedience, nor troops of friends. All these he 1620. 
has — no man in greater fulness. If his heart has other 
longings, he has only to express his wish. In January, 1621. 
1621, he receives the title of Viscount St. Albans, in a Jan. 27. 
form of peculiar honour — other Peers being created by 
letters-patent, he by investiture with the coronet and robe. 

18. Yet, only seven months after printing the Greatest 
Birth of Time, only three months after receiving in the 
King's presence the .robe and coronet, he is stripped of his 
honours, degraded from his great place, condemned to a 
monstrous fine, and flung into the Tower. 

The tale of this fall is the most strange and sad in the 
whole history of man. 

18, Lords' Jour., iii. 105. 



246 FEANCIS BACON. 



1620. 

Nov. 



CHAPTEE XII 



FEES. 



XII. 1. 1. To see why the threat of prosecution so deeply dis- 
turbed Egerton, and how easy it may be for unscrupulous 
men to frame a charge of corruption against his successor, 
a reader who is not a lawyer should remind himself of the 
state of society in the days of James the First. 

There is no civil list. Few men in the court or in the 
Church receive salaries from the Crown ; and each has to 
keep his state and make his fortune out of fees and gifts. 
The King takes fees. The archbishop, the bishop, the 
rural dean take fees. The Lord Chancellor, the Lord 
Chief Justice, the Baron of the Exchequer, the Master of 
the Kolls, the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, the 
King's Serjeant, the utter barrister, all the functionaries 
of law and justice, take fees. So in the great offices of 
state. The Lord Treasurer takes fees. The Lord Admiral 
takes fees. The Secretary of State, the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, the Master of the Wards, the Warden of the 
Cinque Ports, the gentlemen of the Bedchamber, all take 
fees. Everybody takes fees, everybody pays fees. 

2. In some public offices and courts the amount to 
be paid is fixed, either by ancient usage or by such a 
common understanding as in modern times controls a rail- 
way or steamboat fare. In some, particularly in the courts 
of justice, it is open. Bassanio may present his ducats ; 
three thousand in a bag. The judge may only take a ring. 



1G20. 
Nov. 



UNIVERSALITY OF FEES. 247 

A fee is due whenever an act is done. The occasions on XII. 2. 
which, by ancient usage of the realm, the King claims help 
or fine are many : the sealing of an office or a grant — the 
knighting of his son — the marriage of his daughter — the 
alienation of lands in capite — his birthday — New Year's 
Day — the anniversary of his accession or his coronation ; 
indeed, at all times when he wants money and finds men 
rich enough and loyal enough to pay. In like manner the 
clergy levy tithe and toll ; fees on christenings, fees on 
churchings, fees on marriages, fees on interments ; Easter 
offerings, free offerings ; charities, church reparations, 
church extensions, pews, and rents. 

In the government offices it is the same as in the palace 
and the church. If the Attorney-General, the Secretary 
of State, the Lord-Admiral, or the Privy Seal puts his 
signature to a sheet of paper, he takes his fee. Often it is 
his means of life. To wit, the retaining fee paid by the 
King to Cecil, as premier Secretary of State, is a hundred 
pounds a-year. But the fees from other sources are 
enormous. These fees are not bribes. 

3. The same at the Bar and on the Bench. The Bar is 
a free profession : a member of the Temple or of Lincoln's 
Inn being bound to plead, as the knights whose swords are 
rust were bound to fight, in love and faith, taking no purse 
nor scrip. It is an order of courtesy and chivalry ; its 
members the soldiers of justice, pledged to protect the 
weak, to help the needy, to defend the right. Now, all 
this service is by law and usage free. A barrister may 
not ask wages for his toil, like an attorney or a clerk, nor 
can he reclaim by any process of law, as the clerk and the 
attorney can, the value of his time and speech. If he lives 
on the gifts of grateful clients, these gifts must be perfectly 



1620. 
Nov. 



248 FKANCIS BACON. 

XII. 3. free. This theory of a counsel's hire, though old as 
our language and our institutions, is of course a sham. 
No junior on the Oxford circuit dreams of succouring 
damsels from love of Dulcinea, or freeing galley-slaves 
from the obligations of knighthood. No guineas, no 
speech. The shifts by which lax attorneys are tickled 
into passing the fees which no law compels them to pay 
are droll as anything in the immortal laws of Barataria. 

4. Now, the rules which continue under Victoria to 
govern the Bar, under James the First governed the 
Bench. The Lord Chief Justice or the Lord Chancellor, 
like the Secretary of State, is paid by fees. The King's 
judge is neither in deed nor in name a public servant : 
he receives a nominal sum as standing counsel for the 
Crown; and for the rest he depends on the income 
arising from his hearing of private causes. These facts 
appear in a comparison of the amounts paid by the Crown 
to its great legal functionaries, with the estimated profits 
of each particular post. Thus, the Seals, though the Lord 
Chancellor had no proper salary, were in Egerton's time 
worth from ten to fifteen thousand pounds a-year. Bacon 
valued Ins place as Attorney-General at six thousand 
a-year ; of which princely sum (twenty-five thousand a-year 
in coin of Victoria) the King only paid him eighty-one 
pounds six shillings and eight pence. Yelverton's place 
of Solicitor brought him three or four thousand a-year, of 
which he got seventy pounds from James. The judges 
had enough to buy their gloves and robes, not more. 
Coke, when Lord Chief Justice of England, drew from the 
State twelve farthings less than two hundred and twenty- 
five pounds a-year. When travelling circuit, he was 
allowed thirty-three pounds six shillings and eight pence 



1620. 
Nov. 



FEES NOT BRIBES. 249 

for his expenses. Hobart, Chief Justice of the Common XII. 4. 
Pleas, had twelve farthings less than one hundred and 
ninety-five pounds a-year ; Tanfield, Lord Chief Baron of 
His Majesty's Court of Exchequer, one hundred and eighty- 
eight pounds six shillings a-year. Yet each of these great 
lawyers had given up a lucrative practice at the Bar. 
After their promotion to the Bench, they lived in good 
houses, kept a princely state, gave dinners and masques, 
made presents to the King, accumulated goods and lands. 
Their wages were paid in fees by those who resorted for 
justice to their courts. 

5. These fees were not bribes. If the satirists, from 
Latimer to Nashe, described the Bench of Bishops and 
the Bench of Judges as taking bribes, it was only in 
the vein common to lampooners in every age of the 
world ; the vein in which Boccaccio describes his Friars, 
and Jonson his Justice Overdos. Serious men made no 
complaint. Judicial corruption was not a grievance in 
1604. In 1606 an attempt to reduce the fees in one 
department of Chancery business was rejected by the 
popular party in the House of Commons. 

In the Great List of Grievances, drawn up in 1604, 
we find complaints that Cecil lives in adultery, that Par- 
liament is packed with courtiers, that the Forest Laws 
have been revived, that pardons are sold to cutthroats 
and felons, that monopolies are granted to duns, and patents 
bestowed on extortioners and pimps; not that the great 
lawyers are thought corrupt, or that justice is supposed to 
be bought and sold. 

Nor is such a grievance felt though undescribed. In the 
List of Grievances there is one charge against the Lord 

5. Dom. Papers James First, i. 68, S. P. 0, 



1620. 

Nov. 



250 . FKANCIS BACON. 

XII. 5. Chancellor Egerton. Had there been a second, it would 
certainly have been named. In 1604 the charge which law 
reformers made against Egerton was that he held the two 
offices of Master of the Rolls and Keeper of the Great 
Seals. It never occurred to these men to complain that 
he took his wages in the shape of fees. 

6. In 1606 a bill was laid before the Commons, by a dis- 
appointed jobber, to reduce some of the fees for copies in 
the Court of Kecord. In the debates on this bill Bacon 
assumed a leading part. The argument of counsel was 
against the interference of Parliament, in the unfair 
fashion of the bill, with what Bacon called the freeholds of 
the officers in that Court. The notes of his speech, which 
are in the Bodleian Library, and have not been printed, 
put the case as it appeared to the best minds in England 
in 1606, a year before he held any office under the Crown. 
Bacon showed that the bill to reduce the fees for copies 
originated in a spirit, not of reform, but of revenge ; that 
a similar bill had, in years gone by, been promptly rejected 
by the House ; that such a law to cut down fees was un- 
precedented ; that the bill was retroactive, against all law 
and justice ; that a man's right in his fees was sacred as 
his right in his goods and lands. Kemembering all that 
is to follow, with how much curiosity one reads these 
nineteen heads of a discourse against the bill ! 

Sir Francis Bacon's Speech. 

First: It hath sprung out of the ashes of a decayed 
monopoly by the spleen of one man ; that, because lie 
could not continue his new exactions, therefore would now 
pull down ancient fees. 

6. Tanner MSS. 169, fol. 42 ; Com. Jour., i. 259, 268, 279. 



SPEECH ON FEES FOR COPIES. 251 

Second : It knows the way out of the House ; for in the XII. 6. 
xxxv Eliz. the like bill was preferred, and much called — 
upon at the first, and rejected at the engrossment, not 1620# 
having twenty voices for it. ov " 

Third : It is without all precedent ; for look into former 
laws and you shall find that, when a statute enacts a new 
office or acts to be done, it limits fees, as in case of enrol- 
ment, in case of administration, &c, but it never limits 
ancient fees to take away other men's freeholds. 

Fourth : It looks extremely back, which is against all 
justice of Parliament, for a number of subjects are already 
placed in offices : some attaining them in course of long 
service ; some in consideration of great sums of money ; 
some in reward of service from the Crown, when they 
might have had other suits and such offices again allied 
with a number of other subjects, who valued them ac- 
cording to their offices. Now, if half these men's liveli- 
hoods and fortunes should be taken from them, it were an 
infinite injustice. 

Fifth : It were more justice to raise the fees than to 
abate them, for we see gentlemen have raised their rents 
and the fines of their tenants, and merchants, tradesmen, 
and farmers their commodities and wares; and this 
mightily within c. years. But the fees of offices continue 
at one rate. 

Sixth : If it be said the number of fees is much increased 
because causes are increased, that is a benefit which time 
gives and time takes away. It is no more than if there 
were an ancient toll at some bridge between Berwick and 
London, and now it should be brought down because that, 
Scotland being united, there were more passengers. 

Seventh : Causes may again decrease, as they do 
already begin; and therefore, as men must endure the 



252 FRANCIS BACON. 

XII. 6. prejudice of time, so they ought again to enjoy benefit of 
time. 

Eighth : Men are not to consider the proportion between 
the fee and the pains taken, as if it were in a scrivener's 
shop, because in the copies (being the principal gain of the 
officer) was considered ab antiquo his charge, his attend- 
ance, his former labours to make him fit for the place, his 
countenance and quality in the commonwealth, and the 
like. 

Ninth : The officers do many things sans fee, as in 
causes in forma pauperis, and for the King, &c, which is 
considered in the fees of copies. 

Tenth : There is great labour of mind in many cases, as 
in the entering of orders, and in all examinations. All 
which is only considered in the copies. 

Eleventh : These offices are either the gift of the King 
or in the gift of great officers, who have their office from 
the King, so as the King is disinherited of his ancient rights 
and means to prefer servants, and the great offices of the 
kingdom likewise disgraced and impaired. 

Twelfth : There is a great confusion and inequality in 
the bill, for the copies in inferior courts, as for example 
the Court of the Marches, the Court of the North (being 
inferior courts), are left in as good case as they were, and 
high courts of the kingdom only abridged, whereas there 
was ever a diversity half in half in all fees, as Chancellor's 
clerks and all others. 

Thirteenth : If fees be abridged as too great, they ought 
to be abridged as well in other points as in copies, and as 
well in other offices as in offices towards the law. For now 
prothonotories shall have their old fees for engrossing upon 
the roll and the like, and only the copies shall be abridged ; 
whereas, if it be well examined, the copies are of all fees 



SPEECH ON FEES FOR COPIES. 253 

tho most reasonable ; and so of other offices, as customs, XII. G. 
searchers, mayors, bailiffs, &c, which have many ancient — 
fees incident to their offices, which all may be called in l62 0- 
question upon the like or better reason. v ' 

Fourteenth : The suggestion of the bill is utterly false, 
which in all law is odious. For it suggesteth that these 
fees have of late years been exacted, which is utterly 
untrue, having been time out of mind and being men's 
freehold, whereof they may have an assize, so as the Par- 
liament may as well take any man's lands, common means, 
&c, as these fees. f 

Fifteenth : It casts a slander upon all superior judges, 
as if they had tolerated extortions, whereas there have been 
severe and strict courses taken, and that of late, for the 
distinguishing of lawful fees from new exactions, and fees 
reduced into tables, and they published and hanged up in 
courts, that the subjects be not poled nor aggrieved. 

Sixteenth : The law (if it were just) ought to enter into 
an examination and distinction what were rightful and 
ancient fees and what were upstart fees and encroach- 
ments, whereas now it sweeps them all away without 
difference. 

Seventeenth : It requires an impossibility, setting men 
to spell again how many syllables be in a line, and puts 
the penalty of xxs. for every line faulty, which is xviiiZ. 
a sheet. And the superior officers must answer it for 
clerks' faults or oversight. 

Eighteenth : It doth disgrace superior judges in court, 
to whom it properly belongeth to correct those misde- 
meanours according to their oaths and according to 
discretion, because it is impossible to reduce it to a 
definite rule. 

Nineteenth : This being a penal law, it seems there is 



254 FKANCIS BACON. 

XII. 6. but some commodity sought for, that some that could 
— not continue their first monopoly might make themselves 
" ' whole out of some penalties. 



ov 






These arguments prevailed. A committee being named 
to report on the bill, they reported against it, and the 
bill was laid asleep. 

7. A few years later, mainly through the speeches and 
the writings of Bacon himself, a feeling began to show 
itself against the payment of judges, registrars, and clerks 
by uncertain fees. Each new Parliament saw the subject 
stirred. In the sessions of 1610 and 1614 bills were 
introduced and dropped. But the argument for a great 
and just change of the old system grew under debate. 
The business of the courts increases daily, and the private 
causes have long ago become more numerous and import- 
ant than the King's causes. A plan, therefore, which may 
have done very well under Edward or Henry, may be a 
very great evil under James. An unpaid Bench, though 
all that society wished for its defence under feudal or 
Brehon law, may obviously become a dangerous power 
in a highly artificial and litigious age. Such is the rea- 
soning of many wise men. Not that justice is less 
purely dispensed under Bacon than of yore ; the reverse 
is a conspicuous fact. The improvement has been 
slow and safe. Hatton danced through his duties with 
more credit than Bromley ; Puckering surpassed Hatton, 
and Egerton eclipsed Puckering. The last Chancellor 
of all is the best ; in character as in intellect Bacon tops 
the list. A desire to change the fee system is not the 
child of discontent, but of growth. Under Edward or 

7. Com. Jour., i. 427, 489. 



1620. 
Nov. 



PLOTTINGS OF LADY BUCKINGHAM. 255 

Kickard the Commons would have refused a salary to the XII. 7 
judge ; for a magnificently paid Bench would have seemed, 
and probably would have behaved, as the ministers of a 
despotic prince, eager only for their master's work, con- 
temptuous of the intrusion of private causes, callous to the 
concerns of common men. The profits from private suits 
quickened the stream of justice ; helped to maintain 
the independence of the upright judge. Yet many men 
see that a time must come, some think it has come, 
when, through the growth of riches and the purification of 
law, the system of various and precarious fees may be 
wisely abandoned for a system of payments by the State. 

8. An old lawyer like Coke knows how to turn this war 
between an old system and a new sentiment to account. 
Time has neither cured his jealousy of Bacon nor cooled 
his resentment towards Yelverton. If the alliance with 
Buckingham has not yet brought him the Mace and Seals, 
nor even the barony of Stoke, it has given him the 
favourite's mother for a friend. Lady Buckingham is 
busy for her kin; her son John married and made a 
peer, she wants an heiress for her son Christopher, two or 
three rich husbands for her penniless nieces, a suitor, 
may be, for herself. A wife for Kit she may buy with 
honours, just as she bought Frances Coke for John. But 
husbands for her nieces, men of high rank and wealth, 
she can only tempt into the noose with offices and power. 
She has bought Sir Lionel Cranfield up for one niece. 
For another she has fixed her eye on James Ley, the 
rich Attorney of the Court of Wards. Cranfield's wooing 

8. Harwood to Carleton, Feb. 6, 1619, S. P. O. ; Brent to Carleton, 
May 29, 1619, S. P. O. ; Nethersole to Carleton, Jan. 18, 1620, S. P. 0. ; 
Chamberlain to Carleton, July 14, 1621, S. P. O. ; Sign Man., Nos. 44, 53. 



1620. 
Nov. 



256 FRANCIS BACON. 

XII. 8. has been comic as a play. Falling in love with Lady 
Effingham, he proposes to her, and is about to marry 
her, when the news reaches Lady Buckingham, who in- 
stantly warns her miserable dependent that if he hopes 
to thrive at court he must give up Lady Effingham, and 
marry a young person who is certainly poor in purse, 
but rich enough for two in friends. Cranfield takes the 
wife offered to him, with a seat at the Privy Council, and 
a promise of one of the highest places in the sovereign's 

gift. 

To lure him on, James Ley is made a baronet, and a 
special act under the Sign Manual remits to him the usual 
fees for the escutcheon of the bloody hand. 

These promotions, moreover, are but stepping-stones to 
place. What great offices can be got ? 

9. A beginning has been made with the White Staff. 

Suffolk was unpopular. The father of Lady Somerset, 
an avowed Eoman Catholic, a suspected pensioner of 
Spain, he was hated while in power with such bitterness* of 
hate, that when Buckingham's tools charged him with 
extortion, false dealing, bribery, and embezzlement, to 
none of which accusations he lay fairly open, no one felt 
either surprise or pity at the fate of this pernicious 
peer ; and when the Court of Star Chamber, with the 
sham proofs of his guilt before it, deprived hhn of the 
Staff, fined him thirty thousand pounds, and flung him 
during pleasure into the Tower, the whole country, which 
knew him to be a Pajust and believed him to be a spy, 
felt the sentence which deprived him of power to do harm 
run through its veins — a shock of joy. 

9. Proceedings against the Earl of Suffolk, Nov. 13, 1619, S. P. 0. 



YELVERTON'S CASE. 257 

10. The profits of this transaction only kindle the greed XII. 10. 
for more. Yelverton's turn comes next. — 

If not a Puritan in religion, Sir Henry Yelverton has 1G20. 
generally spoken and voted with the Puritan party. A ^ ov « 
man of good parts and unbending character, he has lived 
on friendly terms with Bacon, with whom he kept his terms 
at Gray's Inn and served in the House of Commons. 
His popularity in the House, like the popularity of Bacon, 
kept him out of office. In the debates, for many years, 
his name stood side by side with that of Bacon, with 
whom he spoke for the subsidies and for the Union. The 
same breeze of favour brought them both into power. 
When Bacon became Attorney- General he used his influ- 
ence to procure the Solicitorship for Yelverton. Since 
then they have acted constantly together, most of all so 
in the effort to prevent Frances Coke from being forced to 
marry a man she could not love. Buckingham and the 
faction of Buckingham have never liked Yelverton. They 
have not been able to forget the circumstances of his 
rise, to forgive the obstinacy of his demeanour, or the 
way in which he has exercised towards them his power. 
When Bacon got the Seals, Sir James Ley, who wanted 
to succeed him as Attorney, offered to pay Buckingham 
ten thousand pounds for the post. Lady Buckingham 
supported the lover of her niece ; but the King, when he 
put the Seals into Bacon's hands, himself passed the patent 
of office to Yelverton ; who refused to contract an obliga- 
tion to Yilliers, though urged by Archbishop Abbott and the 
Duke of Lenox to conciliate the chief authority in the bed- 
chamber and the closet, Yelverton's offences are that he has 
been very manly, and that he occupies a very high post. 

10. Bacon's Notes, Lambeth MBS. 936, fol. 133 ; Chamberlain to Carle- 
ton, June 28, 1620, S. P. O. ; Archseologia, xv. 27. 

S 



1620. 
Xov. 10. 



258 FEANCIS BACON. 

XII. 11. 11. Unhappily, in the exercise of powers not well de- 
fined, he has given an advantage to his hot and unscru- 
pulous enemy Coke. A new charter has been lately 
passed to the city of London, with clauses favourable to 
the citizens, which Coke has no trouble in persuading 
James trench on the prerogatives of his Crown. It is 
not pretended that Yelverton took money for inserting 
these clauses, though it is admitted for the defence that in 
putting them into the charter he went beyond his powers. 
Sir Henry submits his error to the King's judgment. 
Such a course suits neither Buckingham nor Coke, who 
want his fine and the profits on his place. Cited into the 
Star Chamber, over which Bacon, as Lord Chancellor, pre- 
sides, Yelverton admits his indiscretion, and Bacon, who 
cannot deny his fault, essays to soften his judges. The 
notes for his speech, written in his own hand, remain at 
Lambeth Palace. They stand as under : 

Bacon's Notes on Yelverton's Case. 

" Sorry for the person, being a gentleman that I lived 
with in Gray's Inn, served with when I was Attorney, 
joined with since in 'many services, and one that ever gave 
me more attributes in public than I deserved ; and, besides, 
a man of very good parts, which with me is friendship at 
first sight, much more joined with an ancient acquaintance. 
But, as a judge, I hold the offence very great, and that 
without pressing measure ; upon which I will only make a 
few observations, and so leave it. First, I observe the 
danger and consequence of the offence ; for if it be suffered 
that the Learned Counsel shall practise the art of multi- 

11. Lambeth MSS. 936, fol. 133 ; Yelverton's Speech in the Star 
Chamber, Nov. 10, 1620, S. P. 0. ; Locke to Carleton, Nov. 11, 1620, 
S. P. O. ; Dom. Papers, cxvii. 76. 



SENTENCE ON YELVEIITON. 250 

plication upon their warrants, the Crown will be destroyed XII. 11. 
in small time. The Great Seal, the Privy Seal, Signet, — 
are solemn things, but they follow the King's hand. It is J" 
the bill drawn by the Learned Counsel that leads the 
King's hand. Next, I note the nature of the defence ; as, 
first, that it was error in judgment. For this, surely, if the 
offence were small though clear, or great but doubtful, I 
could hardly sentence it. For it is hard to draw a straight 
line by steadiness of hand, but it could not be the swerving 
of the hand. And herein I note the wisdom of the law of 
England, which termeth the highest contempts and ex- 
cesses of authority misprisions, which (if you take the 
sound and derivation of the word) is but mistaken. But if 
you take the use and acceptation of the word, it is high 
and heinous contempt and usurpation of authority. Whereof 
the reason I take to be, and the same excellently imposed, 
for that main mistaking it is ever joined with contempt ; 
for he that reveres will not easily mistake ; but he that 
slights and thinks of the greatness of his place more than 
of the duty of his place will soon commit misprisions." 

Coke, furious at the sound of such mild, soft words, 
demands from the Court a sentence of imprisonment for 
life and a fine of six thousand pounds. Even the judges 
of the Star Chamber will not go his length. They con- 
demn Yelverton to a fine of four thousand pounds. 

12. Two great offices, the Treasury and the Attorney- Dec. 
Generalship, are now for sale. Buyers crowd in; for 
this system of ruining men in order to vend their posts 
is new, and no one yet perceives that to purchase a great 
office is to be in future the first step towards destruction. 

12. Apophthegms in Eesnscitatio, 42 ; Locke to Carleton, Dee. 2, 1C20, 
S. P. O. 

s 2 



260 FEANCIS BACON. 

XII. 12. Montagu bids for the Staff; and as the purchase, if 

— made, will cause him to leave the King's Bench, Lady 

1620. Buckingham promotes his suit, that she may raise Ley 

^ ec * to the rank of Lord Chief Justice and marry him to her 

pauper niece. On going down to Newmarket to see the 

King, Montagu calls to tell Bacon he hopes to bring back 

with him the Staff. " Take heed what you do, my Lord," 

says the Chancellor ; " wood is dearer at Newmarket than 

at any other place in England." The Treasury, with the 

title of Mandeville, costs Sir Henry Montagu no less than 

twenty thousand pounds. 

13. Coventry buys the Attorney's office, and Heath 
becomes Solicitor in his place. At both ends Buckingham 
makes his profit. Not to speak of present bribes, he so 
arranges the game that these two removals bring him, or 
save him, eight hundred pounds a-year. Lady Bucking- 
ham presents the King's Bench to Ley. 

These profits and promotions edge the tooth for more. 

14. In the crowd of able and unscrupulous men who 
wait in the ante-room of Villiers, and who build their 
fortunes on him, there is none more able or more unscru- 
pulous than Sir Lionel Cranfield. He had risen from the 
grade of a London apprentice, through the useful and un- 
clean offices of a receiver, a contractor, and a surveyor of 
public income, to the rank of a Knight, a member of Par- 
liament, and a Master of Bequests, before he got introduced 
to the Villiers gang. His life, indeed, has been a study 

13. Woodford to Netliersole, Feb. 2, 1621, S. P. O. ; Chamberlain to 
Carleton, Feb. 3, 1621, S. P. O. 

14. Doquets, April 1, 1605, Dec. 20, 1607, May 31, 1610 ; Sign Manuals, 
No. 49 ; Minute, Undated Papers of 1607, xxviii. 81 ; Northampton to 
Lake, Aug. 12, 1612, S. P. O. ; Winwood to Lake, Mar. 29, 1617, S. P. O. ; 
Brent to Carleton, Jan. 31, 1618, May 29, 1619, S. P. O. ; Netliersole to 
Carleton, Jan. 18, 1620, S. P. O. 



SIR LIONEL GRANFIEL1). 201 

of safe and decorous villany. He got his first step by XII. 14. 
making love to his master's daughter; he grew rich by — 
cheating the customs; he won notice from the Council by 1(,2 °- 
telling them how to squeeze rich aldermen while lightening 
the load on such poor devils as himself; he secured the 
protection of Lord Northampton by a bribe of land which 
was not his own ; he pleased the King by a plan for jobbing 
away the Crown lands on a more extensive scale ; he fixed 
himself on Buckingham by betraying to him, or to his 
cause, his first patrons the Howards. Cranfield was the 
chief instrument in denouncing Suffolk and placing the 
Staff in Buckingham's hands for sale. To reward this 
service, Suffolk's son-in-law, Yiscount Wallingford, was 
compelled by threats of prosecution, fine, and ruin, to 
surrender to Cranfield the Court of Wards. Only a villain of 
stony heart and brazen cheek could have either done this 
deed or taken this reward ; for these Howards whom he 
betrayed and spoiled were the very men who brought 
him into notice, presented him at court, and procured for 
him a seat in the House of Commons. But, in truth, 
there is no act of turpitude, short of the vulgar crimes 
for which men are hung, at which Cranfield, when his 
interests call, would stop. 

15. Bishop Goodman, who knew him well and who 
has left a defence of him, such as it is, confesses for him 
to more dubious conduct and to more safe rascalities 
than would have blasted the credit of ten ordinary men. 
Courting the society of wits and scholars, pretending to wit 
himself, he has no true knowledge of letters, no true sym- 
pathy for such weak fry as poets and playwrights. Pelf is 

15. Goodman, i. 295-308 ; Coryat's Description of a Philosophical Feast, 
Dom. Papers, lxvi. 2, S. P. O. 



262 FRANCIS BACON. 

XII. 15. his god. His greed of money is a brisk passion, and be 
— bas a perfect familiarity with the crooked ways in which 
money can be got. No rogue can deceive Cranfield. 
"Tush, man!" he will say, "I was bred in the city." 
His hand is in every one's purse ; and woe to the man on 
whose place he has set his heart! To pull down judges 
and councillors, for his own advancement and for his 
patron's gain, is the task to which he has now devoted a 
busy and teeming brain. Since his marriage with Lady 
Buckingham's niece he has been suffered to mulct and 
plunder at his ease ; and though some of his victims, mad 
with their losses, threaten to cut his throat, the audacious 
speculator in human roguery holds his course as though 
there were no retribution for injustice, either In this world 
or in the next. A loftier vista opens to his sight ; the 
Staff and the peerage seem within his reach ; but he can 
only grasp them by the help of that powerful and vin- 
dictive woman to whom he lately owed the pleasant alter- 
native of destruction or a wife. 

16. This great lady, if old enough to have grandchildren, 
is not, in her own belief, too old to have a lover ; and one 
more subtle than a serpent is at her side. John Williams 
was the chaplain to Egerton when Egerton held the Seals ; 
but while blessing his master's meat and wine, he kept an 
eye on business ; and when Bacon, coming to York House, 
offered to continue him in his post, the divine refused, 
having begun to dream of recovering the custody of the 
Great Seal from the lawyers to the churchmen. In the face 
of candidates like Bacon, Montagu, and Coke, such a hope 
would seem to most men vain ; not so to one versed in the 
arts by which a low order of monks and priests have in all 

16. Doquets, Nov. 5, 1619 ; Welden, 127, 130 ; Speaker's Note, Feb. 6, 
1621, S. P. 0. ; Chamberlain to Carleton, Mar. 20, 1620, S. P. O. 



JOHN WILLIAMS. 2(13 

ages striven to enslave the world. He makes court to Buck- XII. 1G. 
ingham's mother ; convinced that no woman is insensible 

to the flatteries of love, least of all an ambitious woman, ~ 

Dec. 
greedy for pleasure, and past her prime. When he has in- 
terested her passions in his career, his fight is well nigh 
won. She puts him in the way to rise. She recommends 
him to her son ; so shaping his course that, as either Lord 
Chancellor or as Archbishop of Canterbury, he may soon 
appear to the world in rank and power a husband less 
unworthy of herself. 

Buckingham finds in Williams a divine of easy virtue 
and specious talents ; who never prates to him about 
reform, who pays no homage to the primate, who detests the 
House of Commons with all Ins soul. At a word from his 
new mistress or from her son, Williams would not scruple 
to send his archbishop to the Fleet, or to resist and insult 
the whole Puritan parliament. A man capable of rising 
through an old woman's folly and a young man's vices has 
not been slow to rise. The needy chaplain has become 
Dean of Salisbury and Dean of Westminster. He is to 
have the first mitre that falls into the King's gift. If 
Bacon can be ruined, he is to have the Seals. 

17. To three such schemers as an old Chief Justice, a 
Master of the Court of Wards, and an ex-chaplain to the 
Lord Chancellor, urged by the sharpest passions of cupidity 
and revenge, and backed by the whole tribe of Villiers, 
an accusation against the holder of the Seals is easy enough 
to frame. The courts of law are full of abuses. The 
highest officer of the realm has no salary from the state. 

17. Gerard to Carleton, May 9, 1617, S. P. O. ; Chamberlain to Carleton, 
May 10, 1617, S. P. O. ; Proposals concerning the Chancery, 1650 ; Council 
Reg., Sept. 28, 1622. 



264 FRANCIS BACON. 

XII. 17. Custom imposes on him a host of servants ; officers of his 

court and of his household ; masters, secretaries, ushers, 

clerks, receivers, porters, none of wliom receives a mark a 
Dgc. 

year from the Crown ; men who have bought their places, 

and who are paid, as he himself is paid, in fees and fines. 
The amounts of half these fees are left to chance, to the 
hope or gratitude of the suitor, often to the cupidity of the 
servant or the length of the suitor's purse. The certain 
fines of Chancery, as subsequent inquiries show, are only 
thirteen hundred pounds a-year, the fluctuating fines 
still less ; beyond which beggarly sum the great establish- 
ments of the Lord Chancellor, his court, his household, and 
his followers, gentlemen of quality, sons of peers and pre- 
lates, magistrates, deputy-lieutenants of counties, knights 
of the shire, have all to live on fees and presents. The 
causes heard are many — five or six hundred in every term ; 
the servants of the court are not all honest ; some indeed 
are flagitious rogues. The Chancellor has not taken them 
voluntarily into his service, nor can he always turn them 
adrift : their places are their freeholds. Among thousands 
of suitors, all of whom must have paid fees into the court, 
half of whom must be smarting under the pangs of a lost 
cause, it will be strange indeed if cunning, malice, and 
unscrupulous power combined, cannot find some charge 
that may be tortured into the appearance of a wrong. 

18. They find a fitting instrument for this nefarious 
search. John Churchill is a wretch whose days have been 
spent in the most sordid tricks and chicaneries of law. 
His father was a defaulter in the Court of Wards, he 

18. Grant Book, 62; Crump to Churchill, April 14, 1605, S. P. 0. ; 
Acton to Churchill, April 14, 1605, S. P. 0. ; Mabel to Churchill, Aug. 28, 
1605, S. P. O. ; Ellis Churchill to Churchill, Aug. 29, Sept. 19, 20, Oct. 3, 
1605, S. P. O. ; Bourchier to Cecil, June 16, 1611, S. P. O. ; Chamberlain 
to Carleton, Mar. 21, 1621, S. P. O. 



JOHN CHUKCHILL. 265 

himself was early in life concerned in a most infamous XII. 18. 
fraud. Ten years before he lends his services to the ene- 

1 C ') C\ 

mies of Lord St. Albans, he sold to Sir John Bourchicr ~ 

Dec. 
for a thousand pounds down and eighty pounds a-year for 

life a manor which Bourchier found that he had previously 
conveyed to his two uncles for twenty shillings. 

Bacon, who found this rascal occupying a place of trust 
in the Court of Chancery, detecting him in an act of forgery 
and extortion, has been compelled to turn him into the 
street. Broken for his bad faith, liable to severe punish- 
ment for his fraud, sore against his superior, he is just the 
man for Williams and Coke. Familiar with the court and 
with its clients, every vicious witness, every maddened 
loser, every knave who has been exposed, every dupe who 
has been hurt, are known to him by name and sight. A 
promise of protection from the law, with a restoration to 
his place on Bacon's fall, sharpens at once his greed and 
his hate. He hunts among the victims of Chancery law. 
Every one who has a grievance, or w r ho fancies he has a 
grievance, against the Lord Chancellor, he persuades or 
compels to set down his tale. S 

19. Ever since the day when Bacon got the Seals, Coke 
has been scoring up accusations against him. Lists 
were framed by the Yilliers clan, ready to lodge with the 
King, before the Chancellor had been a year in office. 
Every month has helped them to new matter. By the 
industry of Churchill they are now r prepared to go before 
the Star Chamber; but a patriotic proposal, made and 
pressed on the Crown by Bacon himself, shifts the scene 
of their accusation from the Star Chamber to the House 
of Peers. 

19. Yelverton to Bacon, Sept. 3, 1617, in Birch, 138. 



266 FKANCIS BACON. 



CHAPTEK XIII. 



THE ACCUSATION. 



1621. 
Jan. 



XIII. 1. 1. It is no easy berth that Lord Mandeville has bought 
for his twenty thousand pounds. Soon he becomes aware 
that greedy eyes are on the Staff, that Buckingham is 
restless, and the Yilliers clan hungry. The more he 
tries to please, the faster he multiplies his foes. Worse 
than all, an empty exchequer gapes and yawns. " There 
is not a mark in the Treasury," he says to Bacon. " Be 
of good cheer then, my Lord," laughs the Chancellor; 
"now you shall see the bottom of your business at 
the first." 

2. Something must be done. Bacon says, Call a par- 
liament. The spirit of reform runs high and grievances 
groan on every tongue. To meet the country is to court 
complaint and risk collision; yet Bacon presses this 
counsel on the King, for a series of astounding events 
abroad makes a prompt and permanent reconciliation 
of the English King and Commons a statesman's gravest 
care. The Reformed Beligion is at stake. Deploying her 
troops and the troops of her Austrian and Bavarian allies 
into line, Spain has enveloped Germany in cloud and flame, 

1. Bacon's Apophthegms, in Kesuscitatio, 42. 

2. Council Keg., Dec. 27, 1620 ; Teynhain to Edmonds, Dec. 23, 1620, 
S. P. O. ; Howard to Naunton, Dec. 26, 1620, S. P. O. ; Eeplies of Peers 
and Bishops on the Palatinate Contributions, Undated Papers, cxviii. 43, 
44, 45, 57, 58, 59, 60, S. P. O. ; Chamberlain to Carleton, Dec. 22, 1620, 
S. P. O. ; Com. Jour., i. 507, 508. 



THE KING'S POVERTY. 2G7 

opening the Thirty Years' War with the sack of the Palati- XIII. 2. 
nate and the occupation of Prague. Max is master of the — 
Hradshin, Spinola of the Ehine. 

England, not less than the Protestant faith, is smitten 
by this blow; for Frederick and the Queen of Hearts 
are fugitives from Prague ; the Winter King and 
Queen, as the fanciful Germans call them, owning neither 
principality nor kingdom, not even a home, on German 
soil. 

James, fooled by the Spanish Jew, Gondomar, is mumbling 
about a Spanish match for his son Charles when surprised 
in bis cups by news that Max and Spinola have robbed his 
daughter and her children of their native and elective 
crowns. What can he do ? His purse is empty — his credit 
gone. The goldsmiths of Lombard-street will not cash his 
bonds. He tries, indeed, to beg funds from a patriotic and 
warlike people for the recovery of the Palatinate, making 
of the great Protestant question a small affair of his own 
household ; but the trick is stale, the confidence of his 
people gone. No man will give or lend. Used as the King 
is to evasion, he is startled by the shabbiness of his peers 
in this great need. The Eoman Catholic lords refuse on 
the ground of sickness, debts, and out of town ; their true 
reason, as he ought to know, is their secret sympathy for 
Spain and Bavaria as the armed protectors of the Eoman 
Church ; but the bishops, the deans, the English clergy, 
with rare exceptions, close their fists with the same hypo- 
critical lies. The goldsmiths speak like men ; they will 
not part with their money because they feel no confidence 
in the securities offered for their gold. They will send 
the King, they say, ten thousand pounds as a free gift, 
rather than lend him a hundred thousand with his crown 
for pledge. 



1621. 
Jan. 



268 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIII. 3. 3. Under such discouragements from Ins courtiers, James 
listens to the voice of his Chancellor. If Lord St. Albans, 
in Ins . earlier days, often had to differ from the House 
of Commons on subsidies and grants, it had never been 
through want of patriotism in the knights and burgesses ; 
only through their fears lest the moneys granted by them 
should be wasted, not on the regiments and fleets, but on 
the Herberts and Carrs. In the hour of peril St. Albans 
feels that he can trust their patriotism for supplies. The 
success of Max on the Weissenberg, the devastations of 
Spinola on the Neckar and the Main, disasters the most 
signal which have yet befallen the cause of God and the 
cause of freedom, bring the external danger to our doors. 
The nation feels its loss. Men mourn the King's indif- 
ference to the cries of religion and the claims of nature ; 
and a popular frenzy breaks into accusing prose and song, 
pouring its subtle fire through the veins and arteries of 
the land in defiance of the most rigorous proclamations 
and the most savage censorship of the press. 

Bacon would meet the people. Let the King call a par- 
liament together, state the situation, and throw himself 
heart and soul into the religious war ! 

4. This time there should be no mistake. The sessions 
of 1610 and 1614 were lost through quarrels; not one 
Act passed in either. Grievances must now be met; 
reasonable men must be gained over to support the Crown. 
The enemy must see in England only one party, one flag. 

3. Thomas Scot's Vox Populi, 1620 ; Second edition of the same, revised, 
1620 ; Undated Domestic Papers, cxviii. 102, 105, S. P. O. ; Murray to 
Morton, Jan. 11, 1621, S. P. O. 

4. Bacon to James, Oct. 10, 1620, Mar. 11, 1621 ; to Buckingham, Oct. 19, 
Dec. 19, 1620, printed in Birch, 1763, orig. at Lambeth Palace, 936 ; 
Statutes of the Kealm, iv. 1207. 



1021. 

Jan. 



SCHEME OF REFORM. 269 

Therefore let the King become the leader of the Commons, XIII. 4. 
let the Government adoj)t the business of reform ! 

Many voices in the Council rise against these pro- 
posals of the Lord Chancellor. But the Queen of Hearts 
cries loud for help; the bankers will lend no more, the 
nobles will give no more ; so James, with many a pause 
and doubt, with many a sigh for the days, now gone for 
ever, when he could chase the stag and quaff his strong 
Greek wine untroubled by the clash of arms or the brawl 
of tongues, consents to Bacon's plan. 

The Chancellor, with the help of four great lawyers, 
including Montagu and Coke, draws up a scheme to pro- 
mote a safer feeling between the House of Commons and 
the Crown ; a scheme of reform as well as of defence ; 
involving an immediate issue of writs, an honest hearing 
of public complaints, an abolition of unjust or un- 
popular monopolies, a withdrawal of some of the more 
obnoxious patents, above all an instant increase of the 
royal fleet. 

5. This statement, addressed through Buckingham to 
the King, and signed by Bacon, Montagu, Heath, Coke, 
and Crewe, has not heretofore been printed : 

My VERY GOOD LOED, November 29, 1620. 

It may please his Majesty to call to mind, that, 
when we gave his Majesty our last account of Parliament's 
business in his presence, we went over the grievances of 
the last Parliament in 7mo., with our opinion, by way of 
probable conjecture, which of them are like to fall off, and 
which may perchance stick and be renewed. And we did 
also then acquaint his Majesty that we thought it no less 

5. Tanner MSS. 290, fol. 33. 



270 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIII. 5. fit to take into consideration grievances of like nature 
- — which have sprung since the said last session, which are 
the more like, to be called upon by how much they are 
the more fresh, signifying withal that they were of two 
kinds. Some proclamations and commissions, and many 
patents, which, nevertheless, we did not then trouble his 
Majesty withal, in particular ; partly, for that we were not 
then fully prepared (it being a work of some length), and 
partly for that we then desired and obtained leave of his 
Majesty to communicate them with the council-table. 
But since, I the Chancellor received his Majesty's pleasure 
by Secretary Calvert that we should first present them to 
his Majesty with some advice thereupon provisional, and 
as we are capable, and thereupon know his Majesty's 
pleasure, before they be brought to the table, which is the 
work of this despatch. And herein his Majesty may be 
likewise pleased to call to mind that we then said, and do 
now humbly make remonstrance to his Majesty, that in 
this we do not so much express the sense of our own minds 
or judgments upon the particulars, as we do personate the 
Lower House, and cast with ourselves what is like to be 
stirred there. And, therefore, if there be anything, either 
in respect of matter, or the persons that stand not so well 
with his Majesty's good liking, that his Majesty would be 
graciously pleased not to impute it unto us, and withal to 
consider that it is to this good end that his Majesty may 
either remove such of them as in his own princely judg- 
ment, and with the advice of his council, he shall think 
fit to be removed, or be the better provided to carry 
through such of them as he shall think fit to be main- 
tained in case they should be moved, and so the less 
surprised. 

First, therefore, to begin with the patents. We find 



1621. 

Jan. 



SCHEME OF REFORM. 271 

three sorts of patents (and those somewhat frequent since XIII. 5. 
the session of 7mo.) which in genere, we conceive, may 
be most subject to exception of grievance ; patents of old 
debts, patents of concealments, and patents of monopolies 
and forfeitures of, or dispensations with, penal laws, 
together with some other particulars which fall not so 
properly under any one head. 

In these three kinds we do humbly advise several 
courses to be taken. For the first two, of old debts and 
concealments, for that they are in a mode legal (thouglf 
there may be found out some point in law to overthrow 
them), yet it would be a long business by course of law, 
and a matter unusual by act of council, to call them in. 
But that truth moves us chiefly to avoid the questioning 
them at the council-table is because if they shall be taken 
away by the King's act it may let in upon him a flood of 
suitors for recompense ; whereas, if they be taken away at 
the suit of the Parliament, and a law thereupon made, it 
frees the King, and leaves him to give recompense only 
where he shall be pleased to extend grace. Wherefore 
we conceive the most convenient way will be, if some 
grave and discreet gentlemen of the country, such as have 
at least relation to the court, make at fit times some 
modest motions touching the same: That his Majesty 
would be graciously pleased to permit some laws to pass 
(for the time past only), nowhere touching his Majesty's 
legal power to free his subjects from the same, and so his 
Majesty, after due consultation, to give way unto them. 
For the third, we do humbly advise that such of them as 
' his Majesty shall give way to have called in may be 
questioned before the council-table, either as granted 
contrary to his Majesty's Book of Bounty, or found since 
to have been abused in the execution, or otherwise by 



272 FEANCIS BACON. 

XIII. 5. experience discovered to be burthensome to the country. 

But herein we shall add this further humble advice, that 

1621 

it be not done as matter of preparation to a Parliament, 

but that occasion be taken, partly upon revising of the 
Book of Bounty, and partly upon the fresh example in 
Sir Henry Yelverton's case of abuse and surreption in 
obtaining of patents, and likewise that it be but as a con- 
tinuance in conformity of the council's former diligence 
and vigilance, which hath already stayed and revoked 
divers patents of like nature, whereof we are ready to 
show the examples. Thus, we conceive, his Majesty shall 
keep his greatness, and somewhat shall be done in Parlia- 
ment and somewhat out of Parliament, as the nature of 
the subject and business requires. We have sent his 
Majesty herewith a schedule of the particulars of these 
three kinds, wherein for the first two we have set down all 
that we could at this time discover. But in the latter we 
,have chosen out but some that are most in speech, and 
which do most tend either to the vexation of the common 
people, or the discontenting of the gentlemen and justices, 
the one being the original, the other the representative of 
the Commons. There be many more of like nature, but 
not of like weight, nor so much rumoured, which to take 
away now in a blaze will give more scandal that such 
things were granted than cause thanks that they be now 
revoked. The council may be still doing. And because 
all things may appear to his Majesty in the true light, we 
have set down as well the suitors as the grants, and not 
only those in whose names the patent came to our know- 
ledge. 

For proclamations and commissions, they are tender 
things, and we are willing to meddle with them sparingly ; 
for, as for such as do but wait upon patents (wherein his 



SCHEME OF REFOKM. 273 

Majesty, as we conceived, gave some approbation to have XIII. 5. 
them taken away), it is better they fell away by taking — 
away the patent itself than otherwise, for a proclamation 1621 - 
cannot be revoked but by a proclamation, which we would an * 
avoid. For the Commonwealth Bills which his Majesty 
approved to be put in readiness, and some other things, 
there will be time enough hereafter to give his Majesty 
account, and, amongst them, of the extent of his Majesty's 
pardon, which, if his subjects do their part, as we hope 
they will, we do wish may be more liberal than of later 
times, pardons being the ancient remuneration in Parlia- 
ment. Thus, hoping his Majesty, out of his gracious and 
accustomed benignity, will accept of our faithful en- 
deavours and supply the rest by his own princely wisdom 
and direction ; and also humbly praying his Majesty, that, 
when he hath himself considered of our humble propositions, 
he will give us leave to impart them all, or as much as he 
shall think fit, to the lords of his council, for the better 
strength of his service, we conclude with our prayers for 
his Majesty's happy preservation, and always rest 

Your Lordship's, to be commanded, 

Fr. Verulam, Cane. 
H. Montagu. 
Henry Heath. 
Edw. Coke. 
Ean. Crewe. 

6. The King adopts, or appears to adopt, this scheme, 
and writs go out for the elections. To Bacon's grief, the 
nation, mad with news from Prague and the Palatinate, 

6. Bacon to Buckingham, Dec. 16, 1620 ; Chamberlain to Carleton, 
Jan.. 20, 1621, S. P. O. ; Lake to Carleton, Jan. 20, 1621, S. P. O. ; Bacon's 
Declaration, Jan. 16, 1621, S. P. O. 



274 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIII. 6. sends up to Westminster four hundred of the most violent 
men who have ever met in the Great Council ; yet, with 
straight, swift meaning to do right, to purge abuses in 
church and state, to launch the army and the fleet against 
an insolent enemy, even a parliament of fanatics may be 
turned to good. James, unhappily, loses heart. Fitful and 
feverish in his moods, he gets alarmed by the returns, puts 
off the opening, stoops to G-ondomar's tales, potters once 
more about a match in Spain for young Prince Charles. 
Gondomar regains his power. While Spinola cleanses 
Cleves and the Palatinate with fire, and the Dutch bur- 
ghers, smitten into warlike rage, rush to the help of 
violated cities, James suspends Sir Robert Naunton, Secre- 
tary of State, writer of the admirable Fragmenta Re- 
galia from his public functions, for merely giving some 
hope of English aid to the Protestants of the Rhine ! 

Jan. 30. 7. When allowed to meet, the knights and squires come 
together in a turbulent, almost in a savage mood. They 
listen with bent brows while the poor King maunders about 
his love for the Church and his hopes of obtaining a 
Spanish wife for his son, about his dislike for the doings of 
the Bohemian Protestants and his willingness to spill his 
own blood in defence of those of the Rhine, and when he 
goes away to his palace they proceed, in stem bright 
haste, to purge their benches from any suspicion of Popish 
taint. A committee searches the vaults. The whole 
House takes the sacrament in public. A second time, and 
with added solemnity and publicity, the members swear 
the oaths of supremacy. Hollis and JBritton, Roman 

7. James' Speech on opening Pari., Jan. 30, ]621, S. P. 0. ; Note of Sir 
George More's Report, Feb. 6, 1621, S. P. O. ; List of Sub-Committee on 
Papists, Feb. 5, 1621, S. P. O. ; Chamberlain, Feb. 17, 1621, S.P. O. ; 
Com. Jour., i. 508, 512, 515, 525. 



1G21. 
Feb. 



SUPPLIES VOTED. 275 

Catholics of good family, are excluded from Parliament. XIII. 7. 
Shepherd is expelled for a jest against the Puritans. A 
sub-committee revises and edges the penal laws. 

Burgess and knight are now in fearful earnest. No 
more weakness, no more tolerance ! Max and Spinola are 
at our gates. 

8. Coke, returned for Liskeard in Cornwall, offers him- 
self as the champion of every fanatical cry, of every mad 
antipathy of the hour. He yells for the blood of Papists, 
for the hoards of monopolists, for the licence of free speech. 
His age, his rank, his experience of the world, his powers 
of debate, impose on many of the untried members, now 
serving their maiden session in the House of Commons. 
Some take him for a guide ; still more accept his aid. 

The money bills pass at once. The Chancellor has not 
reckoned on the patriotism of the land in vain. Indeed, 
in their haste to man the fleets, to put a moving fort 
between the coast of Essex and the camps of Calais and 
Ostend, the burgesses vote the King two subsidies without 
a dissenting voice. 

9. James takes this money, not without joy and wonder ; 
but when they ask him to banish recusants from London, 
to put down masses in ambassadors' houses, to disarm all 
the Papists, to prevent priests and Jesuits from going 
abroad, he will not do it. In this resistance to a new per- 
secution, his tolerant Chancellor stands at his back, and 
bears the odium of his refusal. Bacon, who thinks the 

8. Com. Jour., i. 510, 514, 519, 523 ; Chamberlain to Carleton, Feb. 10, 
17, 1621, S. P. O. ; Locke to Carleton, Feb. 16, 1621, S. P. O. ; Statutes, 
iv. 1208. 

9. Com. Jour., 518, 523 ; Speech of a Privy Councillor in the House of 
Commons, Feb. 16, 1621, S. P. O. ; Locke to Carleton, Feb. 16, 1621, 
S. P. O. ; Murray to Carleton, Feb. 17, 1621, S. P. O. 

T 2 



1621. 

Feb. 



276 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIII. 9. penal laws too harsh already, will not consent to inflame 
the country, at such a time, by a new proclamation ; the 
penalties are strong, and in the hands of the magistrates ; 
he sees no need to spur their zeal by royal proclamations or 
the enactment of more savage laws. Here is a chance for 
Coke. Kaving for gibbets and pillories in a style to quicken 
the pulse of a Brownist, men who are wild with news from 
Heidelberg or Prague believe in his sincerity and partake 
his heat. To be mild now, many good men think, is to be 
weak. In a state of war philosophy and tolerance go to 
the wall ; when guns are pounding in the gates, even 
justice can be only done at the drum-head. 

10. Feeding these fiery humours, Coke gets the ear of 
an active section of the House, who push him on, their 
orator of hate, as in happier times they have made his 
great compeer their advocate of charity and peace. Coke 
pours on them his gall. No one in the House yet dreams of 
attacking persons under cover of a wish to expose abuses. 
Even in the case of Mompesson, whose manufacture of gold 
and silver thread is supposed by country gentlemen to 
have raised the price of beer, they declare in their first 
petition to the King that they want measures of redress, 
not injury to particular men. But a moderation that might 
end in a real good to the country is foreign to the nature 
and designs of Coke. 

11. Sure of the ears of a sect, Coke suggests, as a 
branch of the Grievances, that inquiry should be made 

10. Request concerning Sir Giles Mompesson, Feb. 27, 1621, S. P. O. ; 
Locke to Carleton, Feb. 24, 1621, S. P. O. 

11. Chamberlain to Carleton, May 10, 1617, S. P. O. ; Ordinances made 
by the Rt. Hon. Sir Francis Bacon for the better Administration of Justice 
in the Court of Chancery, 1642 ; Locke to Carleton, Feb. 24, 1621, S. P. O. ; 
Com. Jour., i. 519, 525. 



1621. 
Feb. 



THE COURT OF CHANCERY. 277 

into abuses in the courts of law, with a view to limit the XIII 
duration and cost of suits, more especially in the Chancery 11. 
and the Court of Wards. Doubts arise on this as to whether 
Parliament has any power over the King's courts ; when 
Bacon, though he fears and distrusts Coke, and complains 
to the King of his insolence, meets the inquiry with open 
heart. The Commons are helping to do his work. Ke- 
form of the law, and of the courts of law, has been his 
theme for thirty years. When he got the Seals, his very 
first speech in Chancery proposed a scheme for remov- 
ing abuses in fees and suits. His rules for conducting 
business were in themselves the best of reform bills. 
More than all, he has introduced into that slow and 
despotic court the substantial amendments of patience, 
courtesy, and speed. Not a cause is on the lists unheard. 
Vices remain ; vices of form, of persons, of constitution ; vices 
too strong for a single man, however prompt and powerful, 
to subdue. If the House of Commons have any search to 
make into his court he offers them full leave ; if they have 
anything to say on it he bids them freely speak their 
mind. Without this leave they could not move one step. 

Blind to the plot against him, the Chancellor knows no 
cause why he should fear their search. 

12. While Coke, under cover of the public good, is slowly 
sliming round his prey, the Chancellor, called by his place 
to decide between the quarrels of two peers, has the 
honourable misfortune to offend in a peculiar manner the 
pride of Lady Buckingham and her obedient clan. 

This scheming mother has fixed her eyes on Elizabeth 
Norreys, daughter of Francis Baron Norreys of Kycote, 

12. Lords' Jour., iii. 19, 20; Locke to Carleton, Feb. 16, 21, 1621, 
S. P. 0. ; Chamberlain to Carleton, Mar. 30\ 1621, S. P. O. 



278 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIII. as a wife for her son Kit. Elizabeth is rich, for her 
12. mother was an heiress, and she is an only child. To 
soften Lord Norreys, he has been created Viscount Thame 
.„ ,' and Earl of Berkshire. But these Villiers peers, these Pur- 
becks and Berkshires, gall the more ancient nobles. Berk- 
shire either pushes or strikes Lord Scrope, a haughty peer, 
whose ancestors have been in the House of Lords since the 
days of Edward the First. The eleventh baron of his line 
complains of this rude and upstart earl. Berkshire being 
in the wrong, Bacon, despite his known connexion with the 
Villiers people, has the courage to send him to the Fleet 
prison till he repents his sally and apologises to Lord 
Scrope. 

In a few days Berkshire, on submission to Scrope, regains 
his freedom, and returns to his seat ; making for the 
upright Chancellor one vindictive enemy the more. 

Mar. 2. 13. Free from the personal malevolence and from the 
virtuous starts which harass Coke, bent on pleasing his 
great patroness and on winning a rich reward, Cranfield 
goes straight and swift to the point; attacking Bacon, 
Montagu, and Yelverton by name, and proclaiming that he 
does so from a sense of duty to the King. Some one speaks 
of abuses in the Courts of Wards. Cranfield springs to his 
feet, and with brazen brow admits the existence of abuses 
in his court, but impudently declares that the corruptions 
of the Court of Chancery far exceed the corruptions in the 
Court of Wards. 

14. Time has now come for the Villiers faction to show 
their game. While Cranfield and Churchill have been 

13. Com. Jour., i. 525, 535 ; Locke to Carleton, Mar. 3, 1621, S. P. O. 

14. Council Keg., Mar. 11, 1621 : Coin. Jour., i. 552, 555 ; Lords' Jour., 
iii. 42, 50. \ 



ACCUSED IN THE COMMONS. 279 

hunting the dens of London for accusations against the XIII. 

Chancellor, Buckingham has been frequent in his calls at 14. 

York House. Bacon is sick, and nigh to death. Pains — 

rack his head, and gout torments his feet. Yet up to the 1621 - 

1 1 th of March he continues to meet the Council, sitting ar ' ' 

face to face with Coke and Cranfield, who watch his looks 

and weigh his words with all the vigilance of spite. At 

length the treachery of Buckingham grows too plain for 

even Bacon's eyes to blink. If the House of Commons is 

slow to strike, it must be whipped into the mood for framing 

accusations and demanding victims. So Coke brings down Mar. 13. 

a message to the Commons, the most extraordinary and the 

most criminal ever sent down by a subservient House of 

Peers. Coke tells the burgesses that the King is pleased 

with what they have done and what they are doing ; that 

the King advises them to strike while the iron is hot, not 

to rest content with shadows, but to demand real sacrifices. 

He tells them, too, that Buckingham has fallen in love 

with Parliaments ; that he urges them to go on, and gives 

up his brother, a partner with Mompesson, to their wrath. 

No one mistakes the drift and scope of these words. 

Up to the date of this extraordinary and wicked speech, 

no one has breathed a word against Bacon's fame. 

Chancery, not the Chancellor, has been in fault. Now the 

plot breaks. 

Two days after Coke's message, Sir Robert Phillips, 
chairman of the committee, informs the House that two 
witnesses, Kit Aubrey and Edward Egerton, are ready to 
make complaints against the Lord Chancellor. These men 
come up to the bar and tell their tale. 

Aubrey, having a suit in Chancery against Sir William 
Brounker, says he was advised by his counsel to send 
a present of a hundred pounds to the court ; which money 



1621. 
Mar. 13 



280 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIII. he paid to Sir George Hastings, who thanked him for it 
14. in his master's name, and wished him better speed in his 
suit. Egerton, feeling grateful to the Lord Chancellor for 
a service done to him while Bacon was Attorney-General, 
sent him, on his going to live at York House, through the 
hands of Sir George Hastings and Sir Richard Young, a basin 
and ewer, together with a purse of four hundred pounds. 

Each complains that, though he paid Ins money, he 
took nothing by his gift. 

15. Such charges against the Lord Chancellor are in 
the last degree frivolous. Fees and gifts like Aubrey's and 
Egerton's are common as sun and rain. A barrister or a 
judge, set apart from the world, with no salary from the 
State, receives, as a rector or a prelate might receive in 
his day of furnishing or feasting, aid from the public and 
from his friends. Indeed, the higher clergy growl that the 
great lawyers get a larger share of this help in need than 
the zealous servants of God. Bishop Goodman has a 
curious paragraph in point : 

" I did once intend," he says, " to have built a church ; 
and a lawyer in my neighbourhood did intend to build 
himself a fair house, as afterward he did. One sent unto 
him to desire him to accept from him all his timber ; 
another sent unto him to desire him that he might supply 
him with all the iron that he spent about his house. These 
men had great woods and iron-mills of their own. The 
country desired him to accept of their carriage. What 
reason had this man not to build ? Truly I think he paid 
very little but the workmen's wages. Whereas, on the con- 
trary, in the building of my church, where it was so neces- 

15. Goodman's Memoirs, i. 295-6 ; A Selection of the Proceedings of 
the House of Commons against the Lord Verulam, Lord Chancellor of 
England, Mar. 15, 17, 19, 1621 ; Com. Jour., i. 552-563. 



1621. 
Mar. 



CHARGES OF BRIBERY. 281 

sary, for without the church they had not God's service, XIII. 
and no church was near them for nearly four or five miles, 15. 
truly I could not get the contribution of one farthing. 
Lord ! how are the times altered ! It was not so when 
St. Paul's church in London and other cathedrals were 
built. God's will be done ! " 

When Bacon got the Seals his friends and admirers 
clothed York House for him with plate, arras, furniture, 
and pictures ; some sending books, some money, some cups 
of silver and gold. In the crowd of presents came Eger- 
ton's ewer and purse ; came as an expression of gratitude 
and friendship. No reference was made when they were 
given to any future act; nor had the Chancellor any 
knowledge of Egerton's having a suit in court. These 
facts are stated in the House by Sir Richard Young. 

In Aubrey's case it is clear that the fee was paid in 
the usual way ; openly paid ; paid by advice of his own 
counsel ; paid to the proper officer of the court. It is 
no less clear that the Lord Chancellor could have no 
special personal knowledge of this payment. He does not 
keep the accounts of his court. Hastings tells the House 
of Commons that though he paid in Aubrey's money 
he never mentioned to the Chancellor Aubrey's name. 
The truth of this story is confirmed in a singular way. 
When Bacon, on his sick couch, first hears of this payment 
by Aubrey of a hundred pounds, he pronounces it a lie, 
and declares that he shall deny it on his honour before the 
world. He is not aware that it was paid to his clerk. 

1 6. Such charges are too flimsy to stand alone. Except the 
tools of Coke, of Cranfield, and of Buckingham, men who 
have received their cue, and the herd who, without opinions 

16. A Collection of the Proceedings, &c„ Mar. 17, 1621. 



1621. 
Mar. 



282 FKANCIS BACON. 

XIII. of their own, are ever to be found on the stronger side, 
16. no one in the House of Commons pretends to believe that 
such facts establish a case against the Lord Chancellor fit 
to be sent before the House of Lords. Heneage Finch, 
Kecorder of London, next to Coke himself the most learned 
jurist in the House, declares that the evidence brought in 
support of the accusation frees the Lord Chancellor from 
blame. 

Mar. 20. 17. Churchill now comes up. Meautys protests that a 
dismissed servant, an extortioner, a forger, with no hope of 
escaping pillories and jails except by lies against the Chan- 
cellor, shall not be heard against his lord. But Coke 
and Phillips get him sent, together with a wretch named 
Keeling, a low solicitor, a partner in Churchill's villanies, 
to the committee, which comprises the Chancellor's most 
eager foes. In secret, and without cross-examination, 
Churchill and Keeling tell their tales, and the hostile 
members of the committee frame their grand indictment, 
charging Bacon with bribery and fraud. 

The cases on which they count are in number twenty- 
two. It is amazing they should be no more. In his four 
years of Chancery business, Bacon has pronounced about 
seven thousand verdicts ; each verdict must have hurt some 
man in fame or purse ; must, by a law of nature, have 
seemed to the losing man unjust. Does any one love the 
judge who has pronounced against him ? Would the most 
upright judge feel easy on having to put his honour or 
estate at the mercy of a jury, each of whom had been 
mulcted in his court? Yet out of these seven thousand 
sufferers, the skill of Coke and the roguery of Churchill 

17. A Collection of the Proceedings, &c, Mar. 20, 21 , 1C21 ; Com. Jour., 
i. 564. 



PROGRESS OF THE PLOT. 283 

can only frame an accusation of twenty-two particulars, not XIII. 
one of them to the point ! 17. 

18. At first the Chancellor only smiles. Charges against 1621. 
the court over which he sits he expects to hear, and will Mar. 20. 
be glad to consider ; charges against himself personally he 

knows must be malignant and he supposes must be vain. 
The Council guards the high place he fills with as much 
care as it guards the Crown. The fate of Lord Clifford 
and Lady Blount is before the slanderer's eye ; and a word 
from the King or from Buckingham would send Churchill 
to be whipped through Cheap and fettered in the Clink. 
When he finds the case go on, he expresses to Buckingham 
his indignation at the course of Coke : " Job himself, 
or whoever was the justest judge," he writes, "by such 
hunting of matters against him as hath been used against 
me, may for a time seem foul. If this is to be a Chan- 
cellor, I think, if the Great Seal lay upon Hounslow 
Heath, nobody would take it up." But he is not alarmed. 
"I know I have clean hands and a clean heart." 

19. As the case proceeds — as Ley, and Coke, and Cran- 
field, all the tools of Lady Buckingham, take part in it — 
he begins at length to perceive the bearing of the charge 
and the purpose of his enemies. The facts of the accusation 
are nothing, the fact of it is much. As he lies sick at York 
House, or at Gorhambury, hearing through his friend 
Meautys of the moil and worry about him in the House of 
Commons, he jots on loose scraps of paper at his side his 
answers and remarks. These scraps of paper are at Lam- 
beth Palace. Their contents are embodied in letters to 

18. Council Reg., Dec. 30, 1617, Mar. 17, 27, 1618, June 19, 1619, 
Jan. 20, 1620 ; Bacon to Buckingham, in Montagu, 33. 

19. Bacon Memoranda, Lambeth MSS. 936, fol. 146. 



Mar. 



284 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIII. Buckingham, to the House of Lords, and to the King : 
19. yet they possess an original and 'abiding interest in their 
— first rude drafts ; a stamp of honesty and sincerity which 
® the eye cannot help but see or the heart but feel. On one 

of these sheets he writes : 

" There be three degrees or cases, as I conceive, of gifts 
or rewards given to a judge. 

" The first is — of bargain, contract, or promise of reward, 
pendente lite. And this is properly called venalis sen- 
tentise, or baratria, or corruptelse munerum. And of this 
my heart tells me I am innocent ; that I had no bribe or 
reward in my eye or thought when I pronounced any 
sentence or order. 

" The second is — a neglect in the judge to inform him- 
self whether the cause be fully at an end or no what time 
he receives the gift, but takes it upon the credit of the 
party that all is done, or otherwise omits to inquire. 

" And the third is — when it is received, sine fraude, after 
the cause is ended ; which it seems, by the opinions of the 
civilians, is no offence." 

Only the first of these three cases, a contract to defeat 
justice for a personal gain, implies moral guilt or ^nvites 
legal censure. 

Bacon adds : 

" For the first, I take myself to be as innocent as any 
babe born on St. Innocent's day in my heart. 

" For the second, I doubt in some particulars I may be 
faulty. 

" And for the last, I conceive it to be no fault." 

20. The evidence produced against him, as Heneage 
Finch has told the House of Commons, proves his case 

20. A Collection of the Proceedings, &c, Mar. 20, 21, 1621 ; Com. Jour., 
i. 563, 578. 



EVIDENCE AGAINST HIM. 285 

and frees him from blame. Of the twenty-two charges of XIII. 
corruption, three are debts — Compton's, Peacock's, and 20. 
Vanlore's: two of these, Compton's and Vanlore's, debts " 
on bond and interest. Any man who borrows money may , T 
be as justly charged with taking bribes. One case, that of 
the London Companies, is an arbitration, not a suit in law. 
Even Cranfield, though bred in the city, cannot call their 
fee a bribe. Smithwick's gift, being found irregular, has 
been sent back. Thirteen cases — those of Young, Wroth, 
Hody, Barker, Monk, Trevor, Scott, Fisher, Lenthal, 
Dunch, Montagu, Kuswell, and the Frenchmen — are of 
daily practice in every court of law. They fall under 
Bacon's third list, common fees, paid in the usual way, 
paid after judgment has been given. Kennedy's present 
of a cabinet for York House has never been accepted, the 
Chancellor hearing that the artisan who made it has not 
been paid. Beynell, an old neighbour and friend, gave 
him two hundred pounds towards furnishing York House, 
and sent him a ring on New Year's day. Everybody 
gives rings, everybody takes rings, on a New Year's day. 
The gift of five hundred pounds from Sir Balph Hornsby 
was made after a judgment, though, as afterwards ap- 
peared, while a second, much inferior cause, was still in 
hearing. The gift was openly made, not to the Chancellor, 
but to the officer of his court. The last case is that of 
Lady Wharton; the only one that presents an unusual 
feature. Lady Wharton, it seems, brought her presents 
to the Chancellor herself; yet even her gifts were openly 
made, in the presence of the proper officer and his clerk. 
Churchill admits being present in the room when Lady 
Wharton left her purse ; Gardner, Keeling's clerk, asserts 
that he was present when she brought the two hundred 
pounds. Even Coke is staggered by proofs which prove 



1621. 
Mar. 



286 FRANCIS BACON". 

XIII. so much ; for who in his senses can suppose that the Lord 
20. Chancellor would have done an act known to 'be illegal and 
immoral in the company of a registrar and a clerk ? 

It is clear that a thing which Bacon did under the 
eyes of Gardner and Churchill must have been in his mind 
customary and right. 

It is no less clear that if Bacon had done wrong, knowing 
it to be wrong, he would never have braved exposure of his 
fraud by turning Churchill into the streets. 

Thus, after the most rigorous and vindictive scrutiny 
into his official acts, and into the official acts of his servants, 
not a single fee or remembrance traced to the Chancellor 
can, by any fair construction, be called a bribe. Not one 
appears to have been given on a promise ; not one appears 
to have been given in secret ; not one is alleged to have 
corrupted justice. 

21. Very few knights or burgesses take part in the 
debate : on one side Cranfield, Coke, and Phillips ; on the 
other side Sackville, Meautys, and Heneage Finch make 
nearly all the list. This charge against Bacon is regarded 
by citizens and country gentlemen as a mere theme for 
lawyers — a charge of technical corruption more than of 
moral guilt. They may very well stand aloof when Coke 
and Finch, the two most eminent lawyers in the House, 
express on it the most diverse views. Coke construes 
every fee into a bribe : Finch denies that any fee can be 
called a bribe unless it can be shown to have been taken 
as part of a contract to pervert justice. Finch does not 
admit of Bacon's three distinctions : he only knows of fees 
and bribes. A fee paid at an improper time is not a bribe ; 
for how, he asks, can a judge retain in his recollection the 

21. Com. Jour., i. 564-67 ; Proceedings, &c., Mar. 20, 21, 1621. 



1621. 
Mar. 



INQUIRY IN THE LORDS. 287 

name of every suitor in his court ? The House consents to XIII 
let the case go up to the Lords, though as an inquiry, not 21. 
as an impeachment. If they wish the system of Fees 
amended, as they wish that of Patents, of Protections, of 
Pardons, of Personal Service, or of Wards and Liveries 
amended, they do not load the Chancellor with a personal 
charge. Otherwise Coke. They want to cleanse the court ; 
he to destroy the judge. They see a grievance in the 
Chancery, as they see one in the Rolls, the Wards, and the 
King's Bench ; he finds the most noxious grievance in the 
Lord Yiscount St. Albans, holder of the Great Seal. 

22. To drag the House of Lords on the way down which 
they have thus far lured the House of Commons, the gang 
of conspirators procure from James a commission for Sir 
James Ley to execute the office of Lord Chancellor. 
Though not a peer, such a commission will make Ley the 
leader and spokesman of the peers. Seeing what means 
are used against him, Bacon is warned by a friend to 
look about him. He calmly answers, " I look above." 

23. He knows now that his ruin is meant — that the peers 
who are to try him will pronounce as Buckingham points. 
Two or three learned independent men may protest by 
their votes or absence against these scandalous proceedings ; 
the majority, who wish to dance at Whitehall — to enjoy 
the favourite's smiles and partake the gifts of his master — 
will have to speak and act under the eyes of Prince Charles, 
who is not so much Buckingham's partisan as his slave- 
It is with Ley and Williams not a question of Bacon's 
guilt so much as of his place. But his own courtesy and 
generosity blind him to the vile motives of his persecutors. 

22. Lords' Jour., iii. 51. 

23. Bacon to James, Mar. 25, 1621 ; Montagu, 099. 



288 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIII. In the loose sheets at his bedside, and afterwards in letters 
23. to the King, he writes : 
~~~l " When I enter into myself, I find not the materials of 

1621. _ J ' T T M 

■», such a tempest as is now come upon me. I have been 

never author of any immoderate counsel, but always 
desired to have things carried suavibus modis. I have 
been no avaricious oppressor of the people. I have been 
no haughty, intolerable, or hateful man in my conver- 
sation or carriage. I have inherited no hatred from my 
father; but am a good patriot born. Whence should 
this be?" 

That eye, so quick to see the power of truth, the beauty 
of nature, cannot see that it is crime enough that he has 
vexed Lady Buckingham by his independence, and that 
Williams wants his place. 

Yet, knowing his own heart, he can say with honest 
pride : 

" I praise God for it, I never took penny for any benefice 
or ecclesiastical living. 

" I never took penny for releasing anything I stopped 
at the Seal. 

" I never took penny for any commission, or things of 
that nature. 

"I never shared with any reward for any second or 
inferior profit." 

Mar. 19. 24. Ley presides over the peers. On the House re- 
solving themselves into committee, a preliminary fight 
takes place, which shows the strength of this Villiers gang. 
When the House is in committee, it is the rule that 
the Lord Chancellor shall move to his place and sit as a 
simple peer. Ley, therefore, drops from the woolsack to 

24. Lords' Jour., iii. 55 ; Lambeth MSS. 936, fol. 146. 



URGED BY THE KING TO SUBMIT. 289 

the back benches, where he must sit, while the Lords are XIII. 
in committee, as a mere assistant, without a vote. His 24. 
friends propose that he shall resume the chair, even while — 
the House is in committee; and after a strong opposition, 1621. 
though the Prince and Buckingham are present to sup- Mar ' 
port their friends, these last carry their proposal, and Ley 
resumes the chair. This vote decides Bacon's fate. 

In a private interview James now urges the Chancellor 
to trust in him ; to offer no defence ; to submit himself to 
the peers ; to trust his honour and his safety to the Crown. 
It is only too easy to divine the reasons which weigh with 
Bacon to intrust his fortunes to the King. He is sick. 
He is surrounded by enemies. No man has- power to help 
him, save the sovereign. He is weary of greatness. Age is 
approaching. In his illness he has learned to think more 
of heaven and less of the world. His nobler tasks are 
incomplete. He has the Seals, and the delights of power 
begin to pall. To resist the King's advice is to provoke the 
fate of Yelverton, still an obstinate prisoner in the Tower. 
Nor can he say that these complaints against the courts of 
law, against the Court of Chancery, are untimely or unjust. 
So far as they attack the court, and not the judge, they 
are in the spirit of all his writings and of all his votes. 
In his soul, he can find no fault with the House of 
Commons, though the accidents of time and the machina- 
tions of powerful enemies have made him, the Keformer, 
a sacrifice to a false cry for reform. 

25. In answer to a statement sent to him from the April 28. 
Lords, he confesses, as the King has begged him to 
confess, to the receipt of the several fees and gifts, and. 
to a trust in the servants of his court, often most unwise. 

25. Lords' Jour., iii. 99, 100. 



1621. 
April 28. 



290 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIII. Most of the cases fall under his third division ; two or 
25. three under his second ; none under his first. Beyond 
this point his confession and submission do not run. If 
he takes to himself some share of blame, he takes to him- 
self no share of guilt. He pleads guilty to carelessness, 
not to crime. But he points out, too, t iat all the irregu- 
larities found in his court occurred when he was new in 
office, strange to his clerks and registrars, overwhelmed 
with arrears of work. The very last of them is two years 
old. For the latter half of his reign as Chancellor, 
the vindictive inquisition of his enemies, aided by the 
treachery of his servants, has not been able to detect in 
his administration of justice a fault, much less a crime. 

May 3. 26. The peers condemn. The Villiers faction move to 
suspend during life his titles of nobility. Abbott and the 
bench of bishops oppose this motion. Fine, imprison- 
ment, loss of office, are the forms of a political sen- 
tence ; degradation from nobility is a moral censure. One 
is only loss of power, the other is loss of honour. A 
majority of two defeats this scheme of adding infamy to 
punishment. The second motion passes. Ley has the 
' satisfaction of declaring to his partizans in the House of 
Peers that the greatest man who ever sat upon its benches 
is ignominiously expelled, deprived of the Seals, fined 
forty thousand pounds, and cast into the Tower. 

26. Chamberlain to Carleton, May 2, 5, 1621, S. P. O. ; Lords' Jonr., 
iii. 105. 



REFORM AT AN END. 291 



CHAPTER XIV. 



AFTEK SENTENCE. 



1. Bacon makes no complaint. He feels that he is made XIV. 1, 
a sacrifice, an innocent sacrifice, for what he hopes may — 
turn out to be the public good. The court is corrupt, 1621. 
though the judge is pure. In a few brave words he states -M- a y- 
the case : u I was the justest judge that was in England 
these fifty years, but it was the justest censure that was 
in Parliament these two hundred years." 

2. With the sentence on Lord St. Albans ends the 
ministerial passion for reform. No further search is made 
into Chancery iniquities, nor does the House remember 
to proceed with its inquiry into the evil practices of the 
King's Bench and the Court of Wards. The Crown makes 
a feeble effort of investigation, but only like the House of 
Commons to let the question drop. If the new Chancellor 
names a commission to report on Fees, nothing comes of 
their report. All that is irregular in the mode of con- 
ducting legal business grows to be more irregular. Instead 
of being a court without arrears, it is soon blocked up with 
clients. The new men invent new methods of extortion. 

With the fall of the Reformer ends the immediate pros- 
pect of reform. The very topic is adjourned to the times 
of Naseby and Dunbar. 

1. Apophthegms, Spedding's Works of Bacon, vii. 179, 

2. Statutes of the Realm, iv. 1208 ; Welden, 130 ; King's Proclamation, 
July 10, 1621 ; Proposals concerning the Chancery, 1650. 

u 2 



292 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIV. 3. 3. All the agents of this memorable persecution get 
— their share of spoil, except the man to whose invention 
~ ' and persistence its success is due. Coke is in disgrace ; 
n ^' for the match between his daughter and Sir John Villiers, 
though crowned with a peerage, has turned out a dismal 
work. Ley, if he misses the Seals, which Lady Buckingham 
reserves for the one nearer and dearer, obtains a wife, with 
the prospect of promotion and a peerage, for which indeed 
he has not long to wait. Churchill goes back to the trust 
which he so shamefully abused. Williams steps into the 
Privy Council, and receives the Seals. "I should have 
known my successor," says Bacon, on receiving this ex- 
traordinary news. Some of the great peers demur to the 
nomination of such a fellow as Williams to the presidency 
of their lordships' house ; and the King only quells this 
clamour of the Howards and De Teres by threatening 
them, if they object to Williams, with the nomination of 
Kichard Neile. To give dignity to Lady Buckingham's 
friend, he is named successor to Dr. Mountain in the see 
of Lincoln. Cranfield's merits demand and receive no 
less magnificent a prize. 

Some of the Villiers gang proposed to attack Montagu, 
the Lord Treasurer, while their friends were pushing 
the charge against Bacon. Coke hinted a fault before 
the House of Peers, while Sir George Paul, one of 
Lady Buckingham's crew, whose zeal had been inflamed 
by the gift of a lucrative office under Ley, petitioned 
the House of Commons against him. But there was 
danger in attempting too much ; and a word from Buck- 
ingham put a stop to the indiscreet initiative of Paul, 

3. Chamberlain to Carleton, June 23, July 14, Oct. 13, Nov. 10, 1621, 
S. P. O. ; Locke to Carleton, Sept. 29, 1621, S. P. O. ; Lords' Jour., iii. 
42, 81 : Paul to Buckingham, July 12, 1621, S. P. O. ; Sign Manuals, xii. 
No. 66 ; Grant Book, 309 ; Doquet, Sept. 12, 1622. 



MONTAGU THE NEXT VICTIM. 293 

his new clerk of the King's Bench. The attack is XIV. 3. 

but deferred. When Bacon is in the Tower, Cranfield, — 

now a baron, opens his siege against the Treasury. 

Montagu is rich and timid, and Cranfield offers him no *' 

choice but that of a cutthroat on Stamford Hill — Your 

office or your life ! Where Bacon has gone down Montagu 

cannot hope to stand. If he will allow himself to be robbed 

of a post which has cost him twenty thousand pounds, and 

of places about it which have cost his kinsmen and servants 

twenty thousand pounds more, the victorious party promise 

to secure him the undisturbed enjoyment of his peerage, 

and to cover the shame of his fall by reviving for him the 

old office of President of the Council. Montagu succumbs. Sept. 29. 

Cranfield gets the White Staff, and after the birth of a 

son the Earldom of Middlesex. 

4. These ends of the conspiracy attained, the prosecu- 1622. 
tion of Bacon, the heat of the Government for reform, dies Mar. 
off. Buckingham has no implacable resentment against 
the great Chancellor ; he only wanted the Mace and Seals. 
When he has got these baubles into the hands of Williams, 
he continues to express, and probably to feel, the warmest 
affection for Bacon's person, the most unbounded admira- 
tion for his parts. Indeed, he wishes to be thought the 
friend of Lord St. Albans, as Greville was the friend of 
Sir Philip Sydney. Meautys, the faithful henchman, in 
his notes to his master, hints at something savouring of 
an intrigue to procure from him confessions of friendship 
and obligation to the powerful favourite. Bacon's' situa- 
tion grows less painful ; his fine is remitted, his freedom 
restored. An attempt to overthrow some of his judg- 

4. Meautys to Bacon, Mar. 3, 1622, Lambeth MSS. 936 ; Spedding's 
Note, i. 9 ; Bush worth's Historical Collections, i. 31. 



294 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIV. 4. ments fails. Of the thousands of decisions pronounced by 

— him in the Court of Chancery not one is reversed. 
1622. 

Mar. 5 < Among his books and his experiments, with his horse 

and his game of bowls, he soon in the country air recovers 
his health, and with his health his spirits and his wit. He 
enriches the Essays with a thousand exquisite touches. 
When the Jew Gondomar, recalled to Spain by an order 
from the King, sends to wish Bacon a good Easter, the wit 
replies, " Tell the Count I return him the compliment and 
wish him a good Passover." Montagu comes to Gorham- 
bury to complain how ill he has been used by the Yilliers 
faction ; " Why, my Lord," says Bacon, " they have made 
me an example and you a president." Poor in everything 
but his good spirits and his capacity for work, he toils at 
his History of Henry the Seventh, at the new edition 
of his Advancement of Learning, at his Advertizement 
touching a Holy War. These writings, and the works 
which have gone before them, extend his fame throughout 

1623. Europe. But his debts weigh on him. He is anxious for 
work, even for work of the humblest kind. In 1623 Tho- 
mas Murray, secretary to Prince Charles, and Provost of 
Eton, falls sick and is like to die. Bacon offers himself 
as a candidate. Sir William Beecher, clerk of the Privy 
Council, a creature of Yilliers, and Sir Henry Wotton, 
poet, wit, ambassador, are his opponents. Beecher has a 
promise from Buckingham of the succession to Murray ; 
Buckingham is away in Spain with the Prince of Wales, 
fanning his face at bull-fights, leering at Castilian dames. 
Sir Edward Conway, Secretary of State, is now the im- 
mediate influence near the King ; and Bacon, who comes 

5. Apophthegms, in Speddings Bacon, vii. 181 ; Bacon to James, Mar, 
25, 1623 | Lambeth MSS. 936 ; Bacon to Conway, Mar. 25, 1623, S. P. O. 



SEEKS PROVOSTSHIP OF ETON. 295 

back to London, to his old lodgings in Gray's Inn, writes XIV. 5. 
to solicit his good will : 



Bacon to Conway. 

GOOD Mk. SECRETARY, Gray's Inn, 25th of March, 1623. 

When you did me the honour and favour to visit 
me you did not only in general terms express your love 
unto me, but as a real friend asked me whether I had any 
particular occasion wherein I might make use of you. At 
that time I had none ; now there is one fallen. It is that 
Mr. Thomas Murray, Provost of Eton (whom I love very 
well), is like to die. It were a pretty cell for my fortune. 
The college and school I do not doubt but I shall make to 
flourish. His Majesty, when I waited on him, took notice 
of my wants, and said to me that as he was a king he 
would have care of me. This is a thing somebody must 
have, and costs his Majesty nothing. I have written two 
or three words to his Majesty, which I would pray you to 
deliver. I have not expressed this particular to his Ma- 
jesty, but referred it to your relation. My most noble 
friend the Marquis is now absent. Next to him I could 
not think of a better address than to yourself, as one likest 
to put on his affections. 

I rest your very affectionate friend, 

Francis St. Albans. 

Conway supports the suit. 

6. James allows of Bacon's great claims. He will think 
of it; he even hopes to arrange it; satisfying Beecher 
with another place. But Beecher is Buckingham's crea- 

6. Bacon to Conway, Mai-. 29, 1623, S. P. 0. ; Do., Mar. 31, 1623, 
Lambeth MSS. 936. 



1623. 



1623. 



296 FKANCIS BACON. 

XIV. 6. ture ; Buckingham is away ; till he comes back nothing 
can be done. Conway's answer is in the State Paper 
Office ; its spirit may be guessed from the following note 
of Bacon in reply to it : 

Bacon to Conway. 

GOOD Mr. SECRETARY, Gray's Inn, 29th of March, 1623. 

I am much comforted by your last letter, wherein 
I find that his Majesty of his great goodness vouchsafeth 
to have a care of me, a man out of sight and out of use, 
but yet his (as the Scripture sayeth, " God knows those 
that are his"). In particular, I am very much bounden to 
his Majesty, and I pray (Sir) thank his Majesty most 
humbly for it, that, notwithstanding the former designment 
of Sir A. Beecher, his Majesty (as you write) is not out of 
hope in due time to accommodate me of this cell and to 
satisfy that gentleman otherwise. Many conditions (no 
doubt) may be as good for him, and his years may expect 
them. But there will hardly fall (especially in the spent 
hour-glass of such a life as mine) anything so fit for me, 
being a retreat to a place of study so near London, and 
where (if I sell my house at Gorhambury, as I purpose to 
do, to put myself into some convenient plenty), I may be 
accommodate of a dwelling for the summer time. And, 
therefore, good Mr. Secretary, further this his Majesty's 
good intention by all means if the place fall. For yourself 
you have obliged me much ; I will endeavour to deserve 
it. At best nobleness is never lost, but rewarded in itself. 
My Lord Marquis I know will thank you. I was looking 
over some short papers of mine touching usury, how to 
grind the teeth of it, and yet to make it grind to his 
Majesty's mill in good sort, without discontent or pertur- 
bation : if you think good I will perfect it, as I send it to 



1623. 



APPLIES AGAIN FOR PROYOSTSHIP. 297 

his Majesty as some fruits of my leisure. But yet I would XIY. 6. 
not have it come as from me, not from any. tenderness in 
the thing, but because I know well in the courts of princes 
it is usual non res, sed displicet auetor. — God keep you. 

I rest your very affectionate friend, much obliged, 

Fr. St. Albans. 

Two days later he writes again. What a mournful, yet 
what a manful tone ! He has sold York House, the place 
of his birth ; he must now sell Gorhambury, the scene of 
his happiest hours and most splendid toils. Yet how 
inspiring, in the depths of sorrow, to see the great man 
bear his burthen bravely : no false pride ; no arrogant 
remembrance of the Mace, the Seals, the Privy Council, 
the Koyal table ; only a simple hope of finding in his old 
age a sphere of duty in which he can win bread by honest 
work ! 

7. He writes to the King : 

Bacon to James. Mar. 29. 

It may please your most excellent Majesty, 

Now that my friend is absent (for so I may call 
him still, since your Majesty, when I waited on you, told 
me that fortune made no difference) your Majesty remaineth 
to me king and master, and friend and all. Your Beads- 
man, therefore, addresseth himself to your Majesty for a 
cell to retire unto. The particular I have expressed to 
my very hon. friend, Mr. Sec. Conway. This help (which 
costs your Majesty nothing) may reserve me to do your 
Majesty service, without being chargeable unto you, for I 
will never deny but my desire to serve your Majesty is of 

7. Bacon to James, Mar. 29, 1623, S. P. O. ; Bacon to Conway, April 7, 
1623, S. P. (X 



1623. 
Mar. 29. 



298 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIV. 7. the nature of the heart, that will be ultimum moriens with 
me. God preserve your Majesty, and send you a good 
return of your treasure abroad, which passeth your Majesty's 
Indian fleet. 

Your most humble and devoted servant, 

Francis St. Albans. 

Murray grows daily worse. Bacon writes again to 
Conway : 

April 7. Bacon to Conway. 

Good Me. Secretary, Gray's inn, 7th of April, 1623. 

I received right now an advertisement from a 
friend of mine who is like to know it, that Mr. Murrav is 
very ill (and that, so are the words of his letter) not only 
his days but his hours are numbered. You have put my 
business into a good way, and (to tell you true) my heart 
is much upon this place, as fit for me, and where I may do 
good. Therefore, Sir, I pray you have a special eye to it, 
and I shall ever acknowledge it to you in the best fashion 
that I can. Besting your very affectionate friend, 

Fr. St. Albans* 

Sept. 8. Murray dies. Time passes on. Buckingham still 

away, the King can form no resolution. Six months later 
the place is still vacant. Bacon writes again : 

Bacon to Conway. 

Gray's Inn, this 4th day of September, 1623. 

Good Mr. Secretary, 

Let me, now his Majesty is in sight of Eton, make 
my most humble claim to his Majesty's gracious promise 

'8. Bacon to Conway, Sept, 4, 1623, S. P. 0. ; Sign Man., xvi., No. 42. 



DISAPPOINTED OF PROVOSTSHIP. 299 

by you signified, which, as I understand it, was, that if XIV. 8. 
Mr. Beecher, who had a promise upon rny Lord of Buck- — 
ingham's score, might otherwise be satisfied (which his 1(y ld. 
Majesty would endeavour), I should have my desire. e P ' 
Mistake me not, as if I expected this should be done and 
perfected till my noble, true friend comes back. But I 
pray refresh it only in his Majesty's memory. It were 
strange if I should not do as much good to the College as 
another, be it square cap or round. 

I always rest your affectionate friend and servant, 

St. Albans. 

Buckingham is adverse to his suit. In small things, as 1624. 
in great things, though he professes a boundless admira- 
tion for Bacon's parts, he chooses to have about him 
men more pliable and more frail. Sir William Beecher, 
a gentleman unfit for such a post as Murray's, takes 
a promise of 2500£. in lieu of the succession; but Sir 
Henry Wotton, an honourable man and a good scholar, 
though of far less various learning and far less exalted 
virtue than Lord St. Albans, gets the Provostship of 
Eton. 

9. It is the last time he troubles Buckingham or James. 
Henceforth he devotes himself to his experiments and his 
books ; to the collections for his Sylva Sylvarum ; to 
his Historia Vitae et Mortis ; to the construction of his 
New Atlantis ; to the enlargement of his Essays. He 
is a greater man now in his study than when the Mace was 
borne before him, and the Lord Treasurer and Secretary 
of State rode on his right hand and on his left. He lives 
in seclusion ; but his writings fill the whole world with his 
fame. 



1624. 



300 FRANCIS BACON. 

XIV. 10. From the seclusion of Gorhambury or Gray's Inn he 
10. watches the men who have ruined his fortune and stained 
his name fall one by one. Before their year of triumph 
ran out, Coke's intolerable arrogance plunged him into 
the Tower, from which he escaped, after eight months' 
imprisonment, to be permanently degraded from the Privy 
Council, banished from the court, and confined to his dismal 
ruin of a house at Stoke. The sale of Frances Coke to 
Viscount Purbeck is a dismal failure. She makes the 
man to whom she was sold perfectly miserable ; quitting 
his house for days and nights ; braving the public streets 
in male attire; falling in guilty love with Sir Eobert 
Howard ; shocking even the brazen sinners of St. James's 
by the excessive profligacy of her life. Purbeck steals 
abroad to hide his shame. At last he goes raving mad. 
In less than three years from the day of that gorgeous 
feast at court, Buckingham would have given his mar- 
quisate to untie the knot. All that Bacon foresaw has 
come to pass. Sir Eobert Howard, a son of that Earl 
of Suffolk whom Buckingham broke and disgraced, 
pursues his pleasure and his revenge in the amour with 
Lady Purbeck, willing to vindicate by his sword the injury 
done by his lawless love. Buckingham, who lacks courage 
either to defend his family honour or to renew the scan- 
dalous scene of the Essex divorce, in place of crossing 
blades with Howard in Marylebone Park, proceeds against 
his sister-in-law for incontinence, and procures from the 
Ecclesiastical Court a sentence condemning her to stand 
in a penitential white sheet at the door of the Savoy church. 
It is easier to condemn than to catch the nimble profligate, 

10. Council Eeg., Dec. 27, 1621, Aug. 6, 1622 ; Chamberlain to Carleton, 
Aug. 18, Dec. 1, 1621, June 8, 1622, S. P. O. ; James' Eeply to the Com- 
mons, Dec. 11, 1621, S. P. O. ; Locke to Carleton, Jan. 1, 1622, S. P. O. ; 
Buckingham to Crew, Feb. 11, 1625, S. P. O. 



1024. 



FALL OF HIS ENEMIES. 301 

an accomplished player at hide and seek. Once the pur- XIV. 
suivants catch a glimpse of her near an ambassador's house ; 10. 
they chase ; she slips from her -coach, runs through the 
gates, changes clothes with a page, who minces like a lady 
into her seat, and tears down the Strand with Buckingham's 
men at the wheels. She trips laughingly away, while the 
officers of justice follow the coach and seize the boy. 

11. The very next Parliament which meets in West- May. 
minster strikes down two of his foes. Three years after 

his return to that trust he so grossly abused, Churchill 
comes before the House of Commons as a culprit. He has 
been at his tricks again, and is now solemnly convicted 
of forgery and fraud. Two months after Churchill's con- 
demnation Cranfield is in turn assailed. Charges of taking 
bribes from the farmers of customs, of fraudulent dealing 
with the royal debts, of robbing the magazine of arms, are 
proved against him ; when, abandoned by his powerful 
friends, he is sentenced by the House of Commons to public 
infamy, to loss of office, to imprisonment in the Tower, 
to a restitutionary fine of two hundred thousand pounds ! 
" In future ages," says a wise observer of events, " men 
will wonder how my Lord St. Albans could have fallen, 
how my Lord of Middlesex could have risen." 

12. The most subtle of his enemies falls the last. After 1625. 
his promotion to the Seals and mitre, Williams, silly enough Nov. 1. 
to dream that he could stand alone, began to neglect Lady 
Buckingham for younger and less exacting women. Mur- 

11. Com. Jour., i. 591, 766 ; Nicholas to Nicholas, Mar. 17, 1624, S. P. O. ; 
Chichester to Carleton, May 12, 1624, S. P. O. ; Locke to Carleton, May 
13, 1624, S. P. 0. 

12. Suckling to Buckingham, Oct. 24, 1625, S. P. O. ; Williams to 
Goring, Oct. 30, 1625, S. P. O. 



Nov. 1. 



302 FEANCIS BACOK 

XIV. murs now rise against him ; slowly at first, but gathering 
12. strength as his ingratitude, his arrogance, and his cupidity 

— prove themselves month by month. When Lady Bucking:- 
ham withdraws from him her countenance, he falls at once 
from Ins fatal height — is stripped of the Seals with every 
mark of ignominy — and is driven, with a sullied reputa- 
tion, though with sharpened powers for mischief, from 
the Court of Chancery into the more settled scenes of 
ecclesiastical strife. 

13. Were there space in his generous heart for 
vengeance, how the passions of the great Chancellor 
would glow and leap as these adversaries fall before 
his eyes like rotten fruit! Never was the wisdom of 
counsel proved more signally, the vindication of conduct 
more complete. All that he foresaw of evil has come 
to pass. He does not, indeed, live to behold that fiery 
joy which lights and shakes the land when Buckingham's 
tyranny drops under an assassin's knife ; but he lives long 
enough to find himself justified by facts on every point of 
his opposition to the scandalous family policy and private 
bargains of the Villiers clan, Frances Coke has made 
Sir John a perfectly bad wife. Elizabeth Norreys has 
run away from Sir Christopher, giving up her beauty 
and her fortunes to Edward Wray. Lady Buckingham 
herself, after moving earth and hell to pull down Abbott 
and make her lover an archbishop, has had to endure the 
pain and mortification of seeing the creature of her fantasy 
neglect her charms. Coke, Cranfield, Churchill, Williams, 
have been alike overwhelmed with misery and shame. 
But he feels no quickening pang of joy at the discomfiture 

13. Chamberlain to Carleton, Mar. 30, 1622, S. P. O. ; Bacon's Will ; 
Montagu, xvi. part ii. 447 ; Dom. Papers of Charles the First, xxiv. 59. 



1625. 
Nov. 1, 



HIS DEATH. 303 

of these enemies. From the moment of his own trial, he XIV. 
has accepted the position of a necessary sacrifice. He 13. 
breathes no word against the House of Commons, nor 
questions the justice of the House of Lords. He speaks 
no evil word of the men who made themselves the instru- 
ments of his fall. But he holds to his nobler intellectual 
work, and the Father of Experimental Philosophy dies at 
last in the very act of an experiment, quitting the world 
in peace with all men, leaving a young widow, who, like 
her mother, will marry again, and appealing for the vindi- 
cation of his fame to time. 



( 305 ) 

APPENDICES. 



-No. 1. App> 

Lady Ann Bacon to Lord Burghley. 
(Original in Lansdowne MSS., xliii. 48.) 

Feb. 26, 1585. 

I know well, mine especial good Lord, it becorneth 
me not to be troublesome unto your honour at any other 
time, but now chiefly in this season of your greatest affair 
and small or no leisure ; but yet, because yesterday 
morning, especially as in that I was extraordinarily ad- 
mitted, it was your Lordship's favour, so, fearing to stay 
too long, I could not so plainly speak, nor so well receive 
your answer thereto, as I would truly and gladly in that 
matter, I am bold by this writing to enlarge the same 
more plainly, and to what end I did mean. 

If it may like your good Lordship, the report of the late 
conference at Lambeth hath been so handled, to the dis- 
crediting of those learned that labour for right reformation 
in the ministry of the Gospel, that it is no small grief of 
mind to the faithful preachers ; because the matter is thus 
by the other side carried away, as though their cause 
could not sufficiently be warranted by the word of God. 
For the which proof they have long been sad suitors, and 
would most humbly crave still both of God in heaven, 
whose cause it is, and of her Majesty their most excellent 



306 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. Sovereign here in earth, that they might obtain quiet and 
I- convenient audience either before her Majesty herself, 
whose heart is in God's hand to touch and to turn, or 
before your honours of the Council, whose wisdom they 
greatly reverence. And if they cannot strongly prove 
before you out (of) the Word of God that reformation 
which they so long have called and cried for, to be accord- 
ing to Christ's own ordinance, then to let them be rejected 
with shame out of the Church for ever. And that this 
may be the better done to the glory of God and true 
understanding of this great cause, they require, first, leave 
to assemble and to consult together purposely, which they 
have forborne to do for avoiding suspicion of private con- 
venticles. For hitherto, though in some writing they have 
declared the state of their, yea God's cause, yet were they 
never allowed to confer together, and so together be heard 
fully. But now some one, and then some two, called upon 
a sudden unprepared, to four prepared to catch them, 
rather than gravely and moderately to be heard to defend 
their right and good cause. 

And, therefore, for such weighty conference they appeal 
to her Majesty and her honourable wise Council, whom 
God hath placed in highest authority for the advance- 
ment of his kingdom, and refuse the bishops for judges, 
who are parties partial in their own defence, because 
they seek more worldly ambition than the glory of Christ 
Jesus. 

For my own part, my good Lord, I will not deny but 
as I may I hear them in their public exercises as a chief 
duty commanded by God to widows ; and also I confess, as 
one that hath found mercy, that I have profited more in 
the inward feeling knowledge of God's Holy will (though 
but in a small measure) by such sincere and sound open- 



LADY BACON TO LORD BURGHLEY. 307 

ing of the Scriptures by an ordinary preaching, within App. 
these seven or eight years, than I did by hearing odd L 
sermons at Paul's well nigh twenty years together. I 
mention this unfeignedly, the rather to excuse this my 
boldness toward your Lordship, humbly beseeching your 
Lordship to think upon their suit, and, as God shall move 
your understanding heart, to further it. And if oppor- 
tunity will not be had as they require, yet I once again 
in humble wise am a suitor unto your Lordship that 
you would be so good as to choose two or three of them 
which your honour liketh best, and license them before 
your own self, or other at your pleasure, to declare 
and to prove the truth of the cause with a quiet and an 
attentive ear. 

I have heard them say ere now they will not come to 
dispute and argue to breed contention, which is the manner 
of the bishops' hearing ; but to be suffered patiently to lay 
down before them that shall command (they then excepted) 
how well and certainly they can warrant, by the infallible 
touchstone of the Word, the substantial and main ground 
of their cause. Surely, my Lord, I am persuaded you 
should do God acceptable service herein ; and for the very 
entire affection I owe and do bear unto your honour I wish 
from the very heart that, to your other rare gifts sundry- 
wise, you were fully instructed and satisfied in this principal 
matter so contemned of the great Kabbis, to the dishonour- 
ing of the Gospel so long amongst us. 

I am so much bound to your Lordship for your comfort- 
able dealing toward me and mine, as I do incessantly 
desire that by your Lordship's means God's glory may 
more and more be promoted, the grieved godly comforted, 
and you and yours abundantly blessed. None is privy to 
this ; and, indeed, though I hear them, yet I see them 

x 2 



308 FEANCIS BACON. 

App. very seldom. I trust your Lordship will accept in best 
I. part my best meaning. 

In the Lord dutifully and most heartily, 

A. Bacon. 

For thinness of the paper I write on the other leaf for 
my ill eyes. 



II. 1. 



No. II. 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 648, fol. 110.) 

May 29, 1592. 

I am glad and thank God of your amendment ; but 
my man said he heard you rose at three of the clock. I 
thought that was not well, so suddenly from bedding much, 
to rise so early newly out of your diet. Extremities be 
hurtful to whole, more to the sickly. If you be not wise 
and discreet for your diet and seasoning of your doings, 
you will be weakish I fear a good while. Be wise and 
godly too, and discern what is good and what not for your 
health. Avoid extremities. What a great folly were it 
in you to take cold to hinder your amendment, being not 
compelled, but upon voluntary indiscretion, seeing the cost 
of physic is much, your pain long, and your amendment 
slow, and your duty not yet done ! Give none occasion by 
negligence. You go, as is commonly said, of your own 
errands. I like not your lending your coach yet to any 
lord or lady ; if you once begin you shall hardly end ; but 
that in hope you shall shortly use it, I would it were here, 
to shun all offending. It was not well it was so soon seen 
at the Court, to make talk, and at last be mocked or 



LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 309 

misliked. Tell your brother I counsel you to send it no App. 
more. What had my Lady Shrewsbury to borrow your II. 1. 
coach ! Your man for money, and somebody else for their 
vain credit, will work you but displeasure and loss, and 
they have thanks. Learn to be wise in things of this sort, 
and do nothing rashly. In haste. Late this Sabbath. 
Farewell. Take care of your health and please God. 

A. B. 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. H« 2. 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 649, fol. 65.) 

April 15, 1593. 

My neighbour upon going to London for his own 
business told me of it suddenly after this Sabbath forenoon 
sermon that he must go to London, and that early to- 
morrow. I am desirous to know how your health is ; how 
matters after Parliament go to private folk, namely, as 
concerns your cousin Hoby ; and, if vou will, your brother 
too. God grant us all faithful hearts in piety and religion, 
and wise and discreet in godly practices. If any lack 
wisdom, ask of the Lord, and receive, as saith the Apostle 
James, his grace with all Christian fortitude to bear up a 
good conscience. I haste to the church again. God make 
you able to hear public instructions to your great comfort ! 
I could willingly hear of Barly proceedings ; for your state 
of want of health and of money, and some other things 
touching you both, gives me no quiet. God bless you both 
with good and godly increase in Christ. 

Easter, as they say. 

Your mother, 

A. B. 



310 FBANCIS BACON. 

App. Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

n - 3- (Orig. Lambeth MSS. 649, fol. 100.) 

SON, Gorhambury, June 26, 1593. 

Goodman Grirmell of Barly came this morning 

hither very sad upon a speech he had heard you were 

about to let his farm to another, yet hopeth better, both 

for your promise and the receipt of some money upon it. 

Good son, keep your word advisedly spoken; it is a 

Christian credit. Be not suddenly removed nor believe 

hastily, but know whom and how. Sure, if that disposition 

be found and observed in you once, it will be wrought 

upon to your hinderance in estimation and profit, besides 

that the grandfather, father, and son have there continued 

—I think once upon a sale of wood in your absence I heard 

that the Grinnells had dwelled there above a hundred and 

twenty years. The man is willing to do as much as 

another; the same person that now would I wot not. 

What reversion in your absence was backward, and rather 

hindered wood sales and other things, he would fain have 

had Goodman Fynch with him to you, but I can in no 

wise now spare him. Mowing and other businesses come 

on ; it is here marvellously hot and dry, and grass burnt 

away. God help us ! I pray you comfort Grinnell's 

heart and keep just promises justly, and be not credulous 

lightly ; and so the Lord bless you and guide you with 

His Holy Spirit in His fear ! Be not too frank with that 

Papist ; such have seducing spirits to snare the godly. Be 

not too open. Sit not up late, nor disorder your body, 

that you may have health to do good service when God 

shall appoint. 

Your careful mother, 

A. Bacon. 



LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 311 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. App. 

II. 4 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 649, fol. 232.) 

Oct. 8, 1593. 

I pray God keep you safe from all infection of 
sin and plague. It hath pleased the Lord to put me in 
remembrance, on both sides of me, by taking two of the 
sickness, very necessary persons to me, a widow, specially 
the goodman Fynch, whose want I shall have cause to 
lament daily. His careful, and skilful, and very trusty 
husbanding my special rural businesses every way pro- 
cured me, and that even to the very last, much quiet of 
mind and leisure to spend my time in godly exercises, both 
public and private. I confess I am so heartily sorry for 
his death as I cannot choose but mourn my great loss 
thereby, and now in my weakish sickly age ; but the Lord 
God doth it to humble His servants and teach them to draw 
nearer to Him in heart unfeignedly, which grace God grant 
me to be effectual in me. I humbly beseech His pity. 
Surely, son, one cannot value rightly the singular benefit 
of such a one in these dissolute and unfaithful days, but by 
wise consideration and good experience. It may be you 
know it ere this, by somebody's posting in jollity ; but be 
wise and learn in time to your own good estimation, and 
be not readily carried either to believe or do upon unthrifts' 
pleasing and boasting speeches, and but mockeries, in order 
to make their profit of you and to bear out their unknown 
to you disordered unruliness. Among their peradventure 
pot-fellowship companions there will be craving of you, 
and 1 wot not what. Promise not rashly, be hie juris ; you 
shall be better esteemed both of wise and unwise before 
that punitive experience shall teach you to your cost. It is 



312 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. said that Thistleworth is visited. Some talk how Fynch 
II. 4. should take it there in baiting his horse ; but now he is 
gone. So was the will of God, who bless you and send 
you much good of all your bodily physic, and make you 
strong to do His holy will to your comfort. Be slow in 
speaking and promising, lest you repent when it is too late. 
Commend me to your brother. Look well to your house 
and servants. Fear late and night roads, now towards 
winter. 

Your sad mother, 

A. Bacon. 

II. 5, Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 650, fol. 223.) 

Sept. 7, 1594. 

I send you herein Crosby's letter, because you may 
better understand by it the words of the Sheriff to himself, 
if the State be brought in question. I am sorry of the last 
act you so earnestly required, whereto I was hardly drawn, 
as you know, for doubt of danger. Doubtless your brother 
Mc hath done somewhat in the Exchequer. You thought 
it could not come to his ear so soon ; but you see you are 
deceived. You shall do well to send for the attorney and 
mine — Marsh I do mean. If he should strain upon the 
manor to trouble me and my tenants, I have brought myself 
in good case by your means. Mr. Crew is not in city I 
hear. It is the worse. The Sheriff threateneth to strain 
before the next audit, which is before Michaeltide, which 
is not three weeks hence at uttermost. You had not need 
to slack this, as Brocket's matter is to my hindrance. 
Some money I had need of for to have pay the suit by his 
cousin. I have not of mine own at this present for my 



LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 313 

house and other charges 61. in money : I am ready to App. 
borrow 101. of my neighbours if I can. I send purposely. II. 5. 
I pray you let me know certainly what way you take to 
help it with speed. If it once come in Exchequer suit, one 
trouble will follow another. Prevent therefore. I would 
fain have gone to London for physic next week, but I 
perceive I cannot, being weakish to ride so far, and the way 
is but ill for a coach for me, besides the wet weather. I 
will desire Mistress Morer to be with me here for that 
time. If you prove your new in hand physic, God give you 
good of it. My Lord Treasurer about five years past was 
greatly pressed by the great vaunt of a sudden start-up 
glorious stranger, that would needs cure him of the gout 
by boast ; " but," quoth my Lord, " have you cured any ? 
Let me know and see them." "Nay," said the fellow, 
" but I am sure I can." " Well," concluded my Lord, and 
said, " Go, go, and cure first, and then come again, or else 
not." I would you had so done. But I pray God bless it 
to you, and pray heartily to God for your good recovery 
and sound. I am sorry your brother and you charge your- 
selves with superfluous horses. The wise will but laugh 
at you both; being but trouble, besides your debts, long 
journeys, and private persons. Earls be Earls. Your vain 
man straitly by his sloth and proud quarrel-picking con- 
ditions sets all your house at Kedbourn out of quiet order 
by general complaint, as I hear. Lately young Morer was 
smote in the eye by him, and I pray God you hear not of 
some mischief by him. But my sons have no judgment. 
They will have such about them, and in their house, and 
will not in time remedy it before it break out in some 
manifest token of God's displeasure. I cannot cease to 
warn as long as I am a mother that loveth you in the Lord 
most dearly, and as Seneca by philosophy only could say, 



314 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. in warning a friend I would rather lack success (which yet 

II. 5. I deprecate) than fidelity. 

Your mother, 

A. Bacon. 

The heavenly preacher saith, Each thing hath his op- 
portunity and due season : well may you do as blessed in 
the Lord ! 

II. (J. Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 650, fol. 75.) 

March, 1595. 

One of the prophets, Nahum I think, saith that the 
Lord hath His way in the whirlwind, the storm, and tem- 
pest, and clouds are the dust of His feet. The wind hath 
had great power : it hath thrown off a number of tiles, some 
fruit-trees and one or two other pales, posts and all, and 
stone pinnacle ; and that I am sorriest for, hath blown up 
a sheet of lead on one side of the gate where the dial 
stands. But, in my conscience, your French cattle, Jaques 
and all, had before loosened it with hacking lead for pellets. 
I pray burn this. Let them not see it ; but hurtful they 
were. I desire to know how you did and do. I pray be 
careful to be well to your own comfort and good desire of 
your friends, with avoiding cold-taking continually and 
preventing by wariness. Sustain and abstain, and be 
cheerful and sleep in due time. I liked nothing my 
cousin Kemp's horse I sent you. I will not Graham's. 
My time is in God's hand, and not at his appointment: 
he ever stood upon a month's warning in my life. Some 
unknown trick there is ; it will not serve with me doubt- 
less. And shall Elsdon and Brocket thus dally and mock 
still ? If God give me strength I will to London for these 
two causes, by His merciful guiding. ^ -g 



LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 315 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. App. 

II. 7. 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 650, fol. 69.) 

March, 1595. 

I came yesterday home, I thank God well, though 
very weary, by that missing the right way we roved and 
made it longer. I found a very sick and sore altered man. 
One might by him see what is the change wrought by the 
hand of the Highest in correcting. He hath been, as you 
know, a strong-armed man, and active in such exercises of 
strength as shooting, wrestling, casting the bar ; and whilst 
he was with me I never used footstool to horseback ; but 
now, God help him, weak in voice, his flesh consumed, his 
hands, bones, and sinews ; but his belly up to his very chest 
swollen and hoved up, and as hard withal as though one 
touched wainscot. I thank the Lord that put me in the 
mind to visit him with a Christian desire to comfort his 
soul, which I trust Mr. Wilblood's spiritual counsel and 
comfort, with hearty prayer, was a mean to it ; God, I 
trust, working with his admonitions in the sick body to the 
reviving of his soul. He hath his memory perfect, and well 
and glad of godly correction. God grant him and myself 
also His continual sweet comfort and feeling mercy to the 
end ! Amen, 

For your going you spoke of to London, and will have 
the two beds hence for your servants, let me know in time. 
I would you had here tarried till that remove ; you should 
have spared much waste expense, which you need not, and 
have been better provided. Surely, if you keep all your 
Kedbourn household at London, you will undo yourself. 
Money is very hard to come by, and sure friends more 
hard ; and you shall be still in other folk's danger, and not 



316 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. your own man, and your debts will pinch you, though you 
II. 7. may hope ; but your continual sickliness withal is a great 
hindrance ; and if you make show of a housekeeping in the 
city, you shall quickly be overcharged, much disquieted, 
and brought not over the ears but over shoulders. There- 
fore at the beginning be very wary and wise, as it is said. 

* Learn to be wise for yourself," one said Consult 

the Lord, and do nothing rashly. I could not choose 
but advise as heretofore. God guide you to safe age's 
rest, and best course. 

-*-*- • Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

(Orig. Lambeth M8S. 651, fol. 66.) 

March 30, 1595. 

I mean, if God will, to come hither again before 
Easter; but you are going farther hence than my able- 
ness will endure to travel, either by water or by land, 
and know not when I shall see you any more. I pray 
God to go before you, and to be with you ever, to 
heal you, to help you, and to counsel and comfort you 
continually with His fatherly love in Christ Jesus our 
Lord. Amen. 

I wrote yesterday to my Lady Walsingham and by her 
to the Countess [of Essex]. She took it well, and thanked 
me. The Countess is very near her travailing time. I 
beseech God of His goodness make her a joyful mother, 
with daily increase of God's blessing upon her and hers. 
Beware in anywise of the Lord H. [Howard] ! He is a 
dangerous intelligencing man ; no doubt a subtle Papist 
inwardly, and lieth in wait. Peradventure he hath 
some close working with Standen and the Spaniard 



LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 317 

[Perez]. Be not too open; he will betray you to divers, App. 
and to your Aunt Kussell among others. The Duke H. 8. 
had been alive but by his practising and still soliciting 
him, to the double undoing. And the Eakl of Arun- 
del, avoid his familiarity as you love the truth and 
yourself. A very instrument of the Spanish Papists. I 
pray you no creature know or see this I write ; "but 
burn it with your own hands. And remember; for he, 
pretending courtesy, works mischief devilishly. I have 
long known him and observed him ; his workings have 
been stark naught. Stand at a distance! I am sorry I 
cannot speak with Dr. Fletcher for your horse. I would 
certainly know. It is not like you will brew hastily. Send 
me word what time you guess, because of mine absence if 
God let me live. But vessels and carriage must surely be 
provided ; for indeed I have none for malt. If you tell 
Crosby your mind, I will pay for it when I have received 
rents. Gryst is very dear methinks, but he denieth. If 
you had taken your physics here in your well-warmed 
house, it had been better I think. God be your guide in 
all your ways, and take heed of cold-taking upon remove 
and after physic. Call for your own necessaries ; you may 
forget you, and you smart for it. Use your legs as you 
may, daily ; they will else be the feebler, and the sinews 
stark and strengthless. It is true, I fear, there is no ordi- 
nary preaching ministry at Chelsea. I cannot tell how 
to lament it ; but both my sons, methinks, do not care for 
it where they dwell. Greater want cannot be. We had 
needs watch continually to be well armed against evil days, 
imminent to be feared ; for of all sorts we wax worse and 
worse. London waxeth straitlaced, urging that slavish 
pleasing will not salve his hard-cured sore. Burn this. 
The God of mercy, health, and peace compass you about 



318 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. with His heavenly favour wheresoever. Farewell in Christ 

II. 8. now and ever. 

Your mother, 

A. B. 

My grief is great about Essex, and truly I fear lest 
opportunity should have given rise to most shameful and 

grievous adultery and the midst of evils and (Here 

follow five words much blotted and very indistinct.) 

II. 9. Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

(Orig. Lambeth MBS. 657, fol. 54.) 

Gorhambuiy, April 1, 1595. 

I send between your brother and you the first flight 
of my dove-house : the Lord be thanked for all : ij dozen 
andiiij pigeons, xij to you, and xvj to your brother, because 
he was wont to love them better than you from a boy. 
Marvellous hard, snowy, haily, and strong windy weather 
here, and great scarcity. I have had more toil in my body 
few days since I came last hither than in above twice as 
long at London. I wish myself there again, and perad- 
venture, if God will, I will before Easter as now minded. 
I am glad your beer was sent so soon. To-day, upon occa- 
sion of a maid sending to Kedborn, but none of my servants, 
I hear Mistress Eead and Henry are malcontent for certain 
implements ; specially, as they say, in the best reserved 
chamber for your friends, noble or not noble, a carpet, and 
other things filled with birds, hunting or hawks or dogs. 
Mr. Lawson was the nobleman lodged there, I ween ; and 
like enough, for he is subtle, vainglorious, and makes you 
bleared still to ensure all, and pay for all ; and further, as 
was reported, that Norris was discontented for your re- 
quiring to Mr. Eead, he not made privy before. Thus they 



LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 319 

talk, and something else, now you are gone ; and one that App. 
tames the bit is become a tippler and will be overseen with II. 9. 
drink, but an ill servant in your house, the fruit of idleness. 
Large was here this day. I told him it was honesty and 
Christian duty to dwell at home with his wife. I would, I 
said, be loth that my son should bear the blame of his 
being an ill husband, and leave his first calling to labour, 
for to leave over to be a good thriving fellow. I used him 
so still, though other civil service, washing among. It is 
commonly spoken that Fynch of Woodend and Guaram 
are joint companions in all ill fellowship. Use them there- 
after, and take no luck by such. You and your brother 
have taken much discredit by not judging wisely and 
rightly of those ; yea, both of you, over-credit to your 
willing hinderance. I pray the Lord give you both good 
understanding by His word and spirit, and health to serve 
Him in truth, to your good estimation, with increase of His 
blessed favour. Let not your men be privy hereof. As 
your good mother, I thus certify. Think of it. 

Your mother, 

A. B. 

Use your legs betimes, for fear of losing by disuse. 

Good Eolf was here to-day to speak with me, and very 
sadly said thus to me, that he had before now, and presently 
again did hear that his farm should be let from him ; 
whereupon his ancient wife and he both were much grieved. 
I told him I never heard any tittle of it, and thought it 
was nothing ; so it will be worse, I wis, for you to make a 
change for Humphrey. He hopes you will at least let him 
tarry iij years longer after his present state. Finished 
scamblers are easily had everywhere, but discreet, honest, 



320 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. sufficient farmers would be continued ; they serve the 
II. 9. country and countenance their landlord indeed. Guaram 
will prove stark naught if you suffer him to let the ground 
from Pleatah farm ; you are marvellously abused by him 
and misled ; some in my house are too often with him. I 
will look better to them for it. Yet by them I hear of 
these his naughty doings, both for himself and you. God 
be with you, and make you able to every good duty, and 
guide you all ways to your comfort. God knows when I 
shall see you. I am therefore more careful to advertise 
you to beware. Remember Groome I pray you. Brocket 
will make jest of us both. Keep not superfluous servants 
to mar them with idleness and undo you. Let Large live 
at home ; best for him, a married man. Nobody see this, 
but burn it, or send it back ; and so commend you to the 
Lord. 

II. 10. Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 651, fol. 65.) 
SON, April 1, 1595. 

Woodward told me you required a hogshead of beer. 
I will, if it please God I come well and in time home to- 
morrow, I will send you one by the cart of my best ordi- 
nary beer ; the rest remaining is March. I pray you let 
me have another hogshead for it. I shall lack else ; and 
let one be ready with a car, because of double jumbling. 
I think, well used, you may drink it after five days' settling 
at least ; but that, as you see, being above iiij months old, 
after it is broached it will not last above a fortnight because 
of turning. 

This bearer I have newly taken into my house. 

A. B. 



LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 321 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. App. 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 657, fol. 64.) 

Gorhambury, April 3, 1595. 

I thank you for your horses. I send you a hogs- 
head of November beer, methinks good, and a barrel also 
of the same brewing which I did cause the brewer then to 
tun of the first tap of the same brewing, and so strong, 
because at that time it was thought you would come to 
Kedburn, and I meant it to you : it is so strong as I would 
not drink ordinarily to my meals, but do you use it to your 
most good ; in any wise when these two vessels be empty 
let them be returned by the cart. I cannot want [do 
without] them indeed, and they be strong, besides divers 
other vessels of mine sent to your sundry places. I did at 
one time send six together, if not seven, to Kedburn, and I 
paid vii s. for heading and hooping and seasoning of them ; 
howsoever they make you pay afterward. I did so in 
truth. I pray remember Groom's ill handling, and curb it 
well for all his naughty and tippling mates. I wrong my 
men, living well and Christianly in then honest vocation, 
to suffer them to be ill entreated and myself contemned ; 
I mean not so. Crosby purposeth to be with you on Mon- 
day if God will, and your corn ready. 

Your mother, 

A. B. 

Yesterday, seeing my sister Eussell at the Blackfriars 
house, after the sermon, I found her very much grieved, 
and her words charging my Lord Treasurer of very unkind 
dealing in a matter very chargeable to [her], and a slight 
end procured, she said to her hurt, with tears on account of 
him. I saw her so lamenting, I said I would write to Sir 

Y 



322 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. Kobert Cecil. " No, no," said she, "it is too late ; lie hath 
II. 11. marred all, and that against my counsel's liking at all." 
But [do] not you nor your brother intermeddle in it nor be 
a knowing of it. I pray you show your brother this, and 
let him not take knowledge lest you both set on work ; 
and for that Howaed, once again be very ware as of a 
subtle serpent. Burn all, for fear of the servants. Be 
not hasty to remove. Your drink well used, and not set 
abroach all at once, above the bung first, then by degrees 
lower once or twice, will be better and last long, saith the 
brewer. York House lease is not here, as I said to my 
cousin Kemp. Mr. Bayley hath seen every place pur- 
posely to satisfy my Lord Keeper. I do not remember 
that ever I saw any lease from the Bishop sealed, but by 
parley and trust betwixt both. Farewell. The brewer, 
who is now here, saith that your beer now sent, well 
handled, will drink well a month's space. Let not your 
servants beguile you secretly or openly. Use your legs in 
any wise and daily, lest they fail you when you would ; 
neglect not in time, and serve the Lord with all your 
heart. 

II. 12. Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 651, fol. 102.) 

May, 1595. 

Grace, and the love of the Lord in Christ. — Your 
beer, well handled I trust, is meant to be sent to-morrow 
early. The brewer hath been careful himself. I had 
no brewing, I dare say these twelve months, more dili- 
gently attended upon of my servants ; if the carriers do 
their part, and all were well watched and looked to in the 
cellar, it is thought for your own special use it will last 
till nigh Michaeltide, both for quantity and quality. As 



LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 323 

you appointed it is brewed, 8 hogsheads in all, and of the App. 
chiefest beer 2 hogsheads, marked with an S on each side II. 12. 
of the wheel mark ; the third, somewhat less strong, being 
a second, is marked, likewise with chalk, with a smaller 
wheel mark, and one only S, by it to know it rightly. All 
the other five alike. God give you the right use of all 
His gifts to God's glory and your own farther advancement 
and true comfort. 

Therowelled horse I had no mind to indeed, nor the 
horse Master Spencer rode on. Lawson thrust in here his 
and others smuttled and spoiled beast. The horse is full 
of windgalls, a token of very spoiling in riding and dress- 
ing. Grass is here yet but poor and scant, and I must 
turn out shortly my two service geldings of necessity. I 
will not change my own faulty husband's horse for yours, 
both heavy and stumbling, and never broken for such a 
toward horse when you first had him. Diverse of my folk 
now sickly. God increase your health I pray God, and 
be merciful to us both. 

I thank you for your comely mastiff; it is supposed he 

will hunt after sheep ; he is too old ; I durst not prove 

him yet. 

Your mother, 

A. Bacon. 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. jj ^3 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 657, fol. 144.) 
SON, 3 June, 1595. 

You had a mind to have the long carpet and the 
ancient learned philosopher's picture from hence : but, 
indeed, I had no mind thereto, yet have I sent them, very 
carefully bestowed and laid in a hamper for safety in 
carriage. 

y 2 



324 FKANCIS BACON. 

App. For the carpet, being without gold, you shall not I 

II. 13. think have the like at this time in London, for the right, 
and not painted, colours ; which is too common in this 
age in more things than carpets, and such it is for all not 
of late bought worth you to buy. Such implements as 
your father left I have very diligent locked in and kept. 
You have now bared this house of all the best ; a wife 
would have well regarded such things, but now they shall 
serve for use of gaming or tippling upon the table of every 
common person, your own men as well as others, and so 
be spoiled as at Kedburn. I would think that John, your 
tailor, should be fittest to look well to your furniture. 
God, I humbly beseech Him, increase in you daily spiritual 
store, and also the comfort of bodily health and other 
comforts of this life to His own good pleasure, to whose 
fatherly love in Christ I commend you. 

I wish the hamper were not opened till yourself were at 
Chelsea, to see it done before you ; for the pictures are 
put orderly within the carpet. You have one long carpet 
already. I cannot think what use this should be. It will 
be an occasion of mockery that you should have a great 
chamber, called and carpeted. What I say is not foolish. 
Draw no charge till God better enable you ; but observe 
narrowly both for your health and purse. Surely your 
vi s beer is no ordinary drink for your house no time of 
the year specially, and usually too strong for you ; but 
Podagra will bestir him: Seeing God hath given you 
some good abilities, I would, I trow, watch over my diet 
and everything to put them in use by health to God's 
glory and your own more credit. 

If her Majesty have resolved upon the negative for 
your brother, as I hear, truly, save for the brust a little, 
I am glad of it. God, in His time, hath better in store I 



LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 325 

» 
trust. For, considering his kind of health and what App. 

cumber pertains to that office, it is best for him I hope. II. 13. 
Let us all pray the Lord we make us to profit by His 
fatherly correction ; doubtless it [is] His hand, and all for 
the best, and love to His children that will seek Him first, 
and depend upon His goodness. Godly and wisely love 
ye like brethren, whatsoever [happen], and be of good 
courage in the Lord with good hope. 

Farewell ! take diligent heed of your health ; be master 
of yourself and act most prudently. 

Your mother, 

A. Bacon, Widow. 

Do not readily relinquish or grant your town house to 
any one. 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. H # \^ 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 657, fol. 203.) 

Gorhambmy, July 30, 1595. 

I most humbly thank God and much rejoiced when 
I heard by Crosby you do more exercise your body and 
your legs, and that in your course you go to the Earl 
yourself at occasions ; surely soon, by the grace of God, 
you shall find great help by bodily exercise in season, and 
much refreshing both to body and mind, and be more 
accepted of. I would advise you went sometimes to the 
French church, and have there, and bash not your neces- 
saries for warmth to hear the public preaching of the word 
of God, as it is His own ordinance, and, armed so with 
prayer for understanding, it maketh the good hearers 
wise to God, and enables them to discern how to walk in 
their worldly vocation, to please God, and to be accepted 
of man, indeed, which God grant to you both. 



326 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. Truly, son, the miller's last coming to you was but of a 

II. 14. craft to colour his halting touching his secret consenting 
to steal, as cause hath been given to suspect him, not lately 
alone, but long : he waxeth a subtle fellow, and hath a 
cunning head of his own, now he goeth with meal to 
London and to some other places hereabout, and will mar 
the mill, I doubt, by his flitting. Wherefore should he have 
a net ? himself confessed about the scouring of the mill, 
but lately, that there was store of trout, and now almost 
none, because Bun and others did lately rob, as you know. 
I took the miller's part in defending his right dealing, and 
so the justices have bound Bun to good a-bearing till next 
sessions ; but that same Bun said earnestly that the miller 
could join and bear with some, and he could abide by it, 
and so hath Mr. Coltman said when I have blamed him 
but for angling. Certainly, son, where he bringeth you, 
though I would they were more for you, he carrieth to 
Mr. Preston and others twice as many, but say yet not so 
to him. I mean to take his net from him, he is waxen so 
heady, new-fangled, that the mill goeth to wreck, and 
customers begin to mislike and to forsake it, which will 
hinder our living and discontinue it. I will cause Hum- 
phrey to be paid as you order with Crosby; surely set 
aside my poor mortmain, but 200?., or little above, a small 
portion for my continuance. I thank the Lord for all : 
spending money goeth but from hand to mouth, as they 
say, with me. I gave your brother at twice 25?. for his 
paling, the rather to cheer him since he had nothing of 
me. Crosby told me he looked very ill ; he thought he 
taketh still inward grief; I fear it may hinder his health 
hereafter. Counsel to be godly wise first, and wise for him- 
self too, and both of you look to your expenses in time, 
and oversee those you trust how trustify, for I tell you 



LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 327 

plainly it hath been long commonly observed that both App. 

your servants are full of money. II. 14. 

My Lord Chief Baron's marriage with your sister I 

never [had] any inkling of before Crosby told. I pray at 

your leisure write to me some circumstance of the manner, 

and God bless it. I send Winter purposely, because you 

should not send your boy. Gorhambury, penultima of 

July. 

Your mother, 

A. B. 

Nobody but yourself see my letters, I pray you. 
After harvest some venison would do well here. God 
bless you daily with good increase. 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. II. 15. 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 651, fol. 211.) 

7 of Aug. 1595. 
For your bottles I thank you. The malmsey I 
tasted a little ; very good. Humphrey shall, God willing, 
be answered ; but with a sight of his reckoning he asketh 
for 20 neats' tongues at once, not very seldom neither ; 
for Mr. Barber Crosby will go within these 3 days to 
keep your credit with him, and such is a very Christian 
duty* Owe nothing to any, saith the Lord in His word, 
but to love one another. I would I were able to help you 
both out of debt ; but set apart my poor mortmain, which 
I certainly have vowed for any acknowledgments to God, 
I am not worth one 1001. Yea and specially you have 
spent me quick ; nothing can therefore remain after I am 
dead. God bless you ! I had not sent now but for this 
cause, by. your message by Wynter. The two countess 
sisters will neighbour you ; both ladies that fear God and 



328 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. love His word; indeed zealously, specially the younger 
II. 15. sister. Yet upon advice and some experience I would 
earnestly counsel you to be wary and circumspect, and not 
to be too open nor willing to prolong speech with the 
Countess of Warwick. She, after her father's fashion, 
will search and sound and lay up with diligence, marking 
things which seem not courtly, and she is near the Queen, 
and follows her father's example too much in that. This 
is the cause of my now writing. Another matter is, that 
now the marriage of your sister is well, by God's appoint- 
ment, I trust [you] use not such broad language upon 
mislike of unkindness. Your men and others, how per- 
adventure you mark not, may hurt you very much. Surely 
if such phrases as you wrote in your letter or such deriding 
should come to his ear, it would be very hurtful to you 
more than one way, which you need not, being never 
abroad amongst them. Your sister's nature is but unkind, 
and at that time of her marriage could not herself think 
of such things. I pray hearken to him with all courtesy ; 
he is of marvellous good estimation for his religious mind 
in following his law-calling uprightly ; beware, therefore, 
in words and deeds and speeches at table before him. 
There is scarce any fidelity in servants. I write more 
hereof, because others write your letters and not yourself. 

I am sorry your brother with inward secret grief hin- 
dereth his health. Everybody saith he looketh thin and 
pale. Let him look to God, and confer with Him in godly 
exercise of hearing and reading, and continue to be noted 
to take care : I had rather ye both, with God's blessed 
favour, had very good healths and were well out of debt, 
than any office. Yet, though the Earl showed great affec- 
tion, he marred all with violent courses. I jpray God 
increase His fear in his heart and a hatred of sin ; indeed, 



LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 329 

halting before the Lord and backsliding are very pernicious. App. 
I am heartily sorry to hear how he [the Earl of Essex] II. 15. 
sweareth and gameth unreasonably. God cannot like it. 
I pray show your brother this letter, but to no creature 
else. Kemember me and yourself. 

Your mother, 

A. B. 

Gorhambury, 5th August, '95. 

With a humble heart before God, let your brother be 
of good cheer. Alas ! what excess of bucks at Gray's Inn, 
and to feast it on the Sabbath. God forgive and have 
mercy upon England ! 

Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. II. 16. 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 652, fol. 86.) 

Gorhambury, Oct. 2], 1595. 

Since it so pleaseth God, comfort your brother 
kindly and Christianly, and let me, mother, and you, both 
my sons, look up to the correcting hand of God in your 
wants every way, with humble hearts before Him, and with 
comfort, and procure your health by good means carefully. 
If I did not warily sustain and abstain, I should live in con- 
tinual pain pitifully. For set sickness, to speak of, I have 
not now, I thank God, but very cumbersome troublous acci- 
dents to keep me to exercise mortification. Kemember, 
her Majesty is, they say, now at Bichmond. God preserve 
her from all evil, and rule her heart to the zealous setting 
forth of His glory ! Want of this zeal in all degrees is the 
very ground of our honest trouble. We have all dallied 
with the Lord, who will not ever suffer Himself to be 
mocked. I send you xij pigeons, my last flight, and one 



330 FRANCIS BACON. 



\ 



App. ringdove beside, and a black coney taken by John Knight 
II. 16. this day, and pigeons, too, to-day. Lawrence can tell you 
my Lady Stafford's speech was of you, as she hath heard 
from her Majesty, marvelling you came not to see her in 
so long space. Consider 1 well and wisely ; for I sent him 
to her to know of her Majesty's good estate to Nonsuch, 
according to my duty, and to Mr. Doctor Smith. He came 
not home by London, as I bade him : do what you may for 
health, piously and diligently, out of question. Where you 
be you must needs disorder your time of diet and quiet ; 
want of which will still keep you in lame and uncomfort- 
able. I hear the Lord Howard is too often with you. He 
is subtilly deceitful. Beware ! beware ! Burn this. The 
Lord of heaven bless you from heaven, in Christ our Lord 

and hope. 

Your mother, 

A. Bacon. 
Burn, I pray, but read well first. 

H. 17, Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 657, fol. 113.) 

Gorhambmy, June 15, 1596. 

By the good hand of the Lord J am come well to 
Gorhambmy, where I find my household well and in good 
order. I thank Cod my sister my Lady Russell's coach is 
far easier than either of yours, and her man, a comely man 
withal, did it with care and very well ; and your brother's 
footman did very diligently go by me. Here be no straw- 
berries nor fish to send ; and for beer, son, I have none 
ordinary under five weeks, at least above a month, brewed 
the first week of May, which now carried, after so long 
settling and in the heat of summer, must needs be spoiled, 



LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON. 331 

which were great pity this dearth time. Truly, son, as yet App. 
I know not when to brew, by my provision not this ij weeks II. 17. 
at least, as well as for vessels. I have tierce of last March 
beer ; but surely, being yet unripe and carried this heat, it 
will be utterly marred. Paying Mr. Moore's bill for my 
physic, I asked him whether you did owe anything for 
physic? He said he had not reckoned with you since 
Michaelmas last. Alas ! why so long, say I ? I think I 
said further it can be muted, for he hath his confections 
from strangers ; and to tell you truly, I bade him secretly 
send his bill, which he seemed loth but at my pressiug, 
when I saw it came to above xv 1. or xvj I. If it had been 
but vij or viij, I would have made some shift to pay. I told 
him I would say nothing to you because he was so un- 
willing. It may be he would take half willingly, because 
" ready money made always a cunning apothecary," said 
covetous Morgan, as his proverb. For Lange, I cannot tell 
what you would have me do for him : he finds I do not 
recompense evil with evil. I have at times given him, he 
knoweth ; but he is but whining, and a companion too much 
with naughty G-oodrain, though not at Redborn, but to his 
hurt. Let him ply his labour, in God's name, and not a 
busybody and secret quarrel-picker, as he is partly sus- 
pected. I use charity to him, though I like not his crafty 
soothing nature. With thanks for your horse J. C. . . . th 
heed all your infirmities to your comfort. Be zealous over 
your health. Hours sink away unseasonably. Farewell. 

Your mother, 

A. Bacon. 



332 FKANCIS BACON. 



App. No. III. 

in. 

Lady Anne Bacon, Jun., to her brothers Francis 
and Anthony Bacon. 

(Orig. Lambeth MSS. 648, fol. 10.) 

GOOD BkOTHEKS, Guilford, 16th March, 1592. 

Being very desirous to see you both at Redgrave, 
and yet loth to put you to that pain which might by my 
desire impair your healths by entreating your repair into 
this country, yet can I not refrain, upon this occasion offered 
of the marriage of my daughter, heartily to pray you both 
to bestow your travels to Bedgrave to the same, where, if 
it shall please God so to dispose of your business and healths 
as I may see you, I shall think myself greatly beholden to 
you, and the feast greatly honoured by your presence. I 
hope also it will be comfortable to you, both in rejoicing 
with my husband and me in the action itself, and also in 
the intercourse and meeting of many good friends which 
you there shall see and meet with, especially your brother 
Anthony, having been so long absent from us all, and by 
that means have not seen sundry of those good friends of 
yours which I hope you shall there see. The day is ap- 
pointed to be on the Thursday, the 6th of April ; and even 
so, with my very hearty commendations to you both, and 
wishing you all good as to myself, I cease to trouble you. 

Your very loving sister, 

Anne Bacon. 



HIS LETTEKS. 333 



No. IV. App. 

IV. 1. 

Francis Bacon to Thomas Phillips. 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 

Sir, 

I congratulate your return, hearing that all is passed 
on your word. Your Mercury is returned, whose return 
alarmed us upon some great matter which I fear he will 
not satisfy. News of his coming came before his own letter, 
and to other than to his proper street, which maketh me 
desirous to satisfy or to solve. My Lord hath required him 
to repair to me, which, upon his Lordship's and my own 
letter received, I doubt not but he will with all speed per- 
form, when I pray you to meet him if you may, that, laying 
our heads together, we may maintain his credit, satisfy my 
Lord's expectations, and procure some good fruit. I pray 
thee rather spare not your travail, because I think the 
Queen is already party to the advertisement of his coming 
over, and, in some, suspect, which you may not disclose to 
him. So I wish you as myself, this 15th of September, 

1592. 

Your ever assured, 

Fr. Bacon. 

Francis Bacon to Thomas Phillips. IY. 2. 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 

Me. Phillips, [1593.] 

I send you the copy of my letter to the Earl touching 
the matter between us proposed. You may perceive what 
expectation and conceit I thought good to imprint into my 
Lord, both of yourself and of this particular service. And 



334 FRANCIS BACON. 

Apr as that which is in general touching yourself I know you 
IV. 2. are very able to make good, so in this beginning of intelli- 
gence I pray spare no care to conduct the matter to sort 
to good effect. The more plainly and frankly you shall 
deal with my Lord, not only in disclosing particulars, but 
in giving him caveats and admonishing him of any error 
which in this action he may commit (such is his Lordship's 
nature), the better he will take it. I send you also his 
letter, which appointeth this afternoon for your repair to 
him, which I pray, if you can, perform ; although, if you 
are not fully resolved of any circumstance, you may take 
a second day for the rest, and show his Lordship the party's 
letter. If your business suffer you not to attend their Lord- 
ships to-day, then excuse it by two or three words in writing 
to his Lordship, and offer another time. 

In haste, your ever assured, 

Fk. Bacon. 

Whereas I mention in my letter an intelligence standing 
in Spain of my brothers, I pray take no knowledge at all 
thereof. 

IV. 3, Fkancis Bacon to Thomas Phillips. 

(Orig. State Paper Office.) 

Me. Phillips, [1593.] 

I have excused myself of this progress, if that be 
to excuse to take liberty where it is not given. Being now 
at Twickenham, I am desirous of your company. You may 
stay as long and as little while as you will ; the longer the 
better welcome. Otia colligunt mentem f And, indeed, I 
would be the wiser by you in many things, for that I call 
to confer with a man of your fulness. In sadness come, as 



HIS LETTERS. 335 

yon are an honest man. So I wish you all good. From App. 
Twickenham Park this 14th of August. IV. 3. 

Yours, ever assured, 

Fe. Bacon. 

Francis Bacon to his aunt Cooke. iy. 4. 

(Orig. at Lambeth Palace, 649, p. 237.) 
AUNT, Windsor Castle, 29 Oct. 1593. 

I had spoken a good while since with my Lord- 
Treasurer, whose Lordship took pains to peruse the will 
which I had with me, and in conversation was of opinion 
that, if the younger children wanted reasonable allowance, 
it should be supplied, and the other parties to be stored for 
their advancement : of the same mind I ever was and am, 
and there is nothing in my cousin Morise's note against. 
Accordingly I have enclosed a note, of a proportion which 
I think you cannot dislike, and which I pray communicate 
with my cousin Morise and the rest of the executors. For 
my part, I wish you as a kind alliance. But the question 
is not between you and me, but between your profit and 
my trust. I purpose as soon as I can conveniently to put 
the money I have into some other hands, lest you think 
the case of the money prevaileth with me ; but I will 
endure in a good cause, and wish I you right well. 

In haste, your loving nephew, 

Fra. Bacon. 

Francis Bacon to Sir Thomas Coningsby. iy. 5. 

(Orig. at Lambeth Palace, vol. 649, p. 236.) 

My very good Cousin, [Oct. 1593.] 

Whereas this gentleman, Mr. Nicholas Trot, one to 
whom, besides familiar acquaintance, I am much beholden, 



336 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. hath conveyed unto him for his money a lease of the pre- 
IV. 5. bend of Withington, under the title of Mr. Heyghton, that 
was sometimes of the counsel of the Marches, a man not 
like to have been overreached in his bargains, against the 
which one Wallwyne claimeth by a former deed of gift, 
supposed to be forged and appearing to be fraudulent, 
because the same party undertook afterwards to sell it, and 
his interest hath been quietly missed by twenty years* 
space, I am earnestly to recommend the assistance of this 
my friend, according to the equity of the cause, to your 
good favour, whereof there will be the more need, both 
because he is a stranger in the country, and because the 
adverse party, as I understand, hath used force about the 
possession; and therefore, good cousin, let him use your 
experience and careful countenance for direction and help, 
according to that good affection which I persuade myself 
you bear me, and which I am ready to answer in all kind- 
ness. And so I wish you as 

Your assured loving cousin, 

Fk. Bacon, &c. 

IV. 6. Francis Bacon to Sir Francis Allen. 

(Orig. at Lambeth Palace, 649, 309.) 

SlE, Edborne, this 25th of December, 1593. 

I accept with all kindness and thanks possible the 
demonstrations you make from time to time of a sincere 
affection and singular respect towards me, namely, in your 
last letter to myself, and approve wholly yours to my 
brother, even to the least and last tittle thereof, wishing as 
a brother, for his own sake, that he had had but half as 
good a ground and reason for his demand as you have for 



HIS LETTERS. 337 

your answer. Protesting unto you with a sincerity very App. 
present to the merit of your own touching me without IV. 6. 
prejudice, that the scanty link of German consanguinity 
should never have prevailed so far with me as to have once 
moved me to have given my clear consent to my brother 
for such his request or recommendation. Touching your 
particular business, I will not fail, by God's grace, in my 
next to our most honourable Earl, to perform my utter- 
most, and will not forget to acknowledge to our good friend 
Mr. Standen, that whatsoever friendly office he shall have 
rendered by his assistance to do to you, that same is done 
to myself. And so, with most hearty wishes of your health 
and contentment, I commit you to the protection of the 
Almighty, remaining always inviolably 

Your most entire friend and servant, 

F. B, 

Francis Bacos to Sir Francis Allen. IV. 7. 

(Orig. at Lambeth Palace, 64:9, 310.) 
SlK FKANCIS ALLEN, Hampton Court, Dec. 20, 1593. 

I do so much favour this gentleman, Mr. Garret, 
who from my praise entered a course of following the 
wars, which hath succeeded unto him as to his good com- 
mendations, so yet nevertheless not hitherto to his settling 
in any place answerable to his desert and profession. In 
regard whereof, understanding of the nomination and ap- 
pearance of employment in Ireland, he conceiveth it will 
be some establishment to him if he may receive your 
favour, being by you accepted in the place of your lieute- 
nant, your own virtue and reputation answered, and the 
uncertainty of the French employment. Of his proof and 



338 FRANCIS BACON. 

A pp. sufficiency to serve I write the less because I take it to be 
IV. 7. well known to yourself, but for my particular I do assure 
you I can hardly imagine a matter wherein you shall more 
effectually tie me unto you than in this. I wished him to 
use me but as a mean of my brother's commendation, 
which I esteemed to be of extraordinary weight with you. 
But because this was the readier and that the entireness 
between my brother and myself is well known to you, he 
desired to begin with this. Thus I wish you all protection. 

Yours in unfeigned good affection, 

Fe. Bacon. 

I was sorry to hear from Mr. Anthony Standen so 
sharply and unseasonably you were afflicted by the gout. 
But you have of him a careful solicitor, and if I can come 
in to him with any good endeavour of mine you may reckon 
of it, 

iy g. Francis Bacon to the Masters of Bequests. 

(Orig. in the Eecord Office.) 

[? 1593.] 
After my hearty commendations. At the request 
of this bearer, Mr. Edward Cottwin, an ancient follower 
and well-wilier to my name and family, I have considered 
of a suit of his depending before you for the recovery 
of certain rents due unto him for divers years past, 
and detained from him only upon a strained construction 
of extreme law. And finding the honesty of the man 
and the equity of his cause to deserve favour, considering 
that the main matter (which is the sum in demand) is 
freely acknowledged, I could do no less than recommend 
him unto your good discretions, desiring you in regard of 
his great loss and troubles to afford him, that which you 



HIS LETTERS. 339 

deny to no man, lawful favour and expedition, which I Apr 
shall be always ready thankfully to acknowledge by such IV. 8. 
friendly offices as shall fall within my compass. And so I 
leave you to God's safe tuition. 

Besting your very loving friend, 

Fk. Bacon. 

Francis Bacon to Mr. Skinner. IV. 9. 

(Orig. at Lambeth Palace, 650, 143.) 
SlR, July 29, 1594. 

I hope you will not find it strange nor amiss if the 
confidence I have in your kind affection makes me so bold 
as most earnestly to request you to pleasure me with the 
loan of five hundred pounds for a year. My occasion to 
employ the same presently is important. My meaning 
(though I say it myself) is entirely, as it ought to be, to 
satisfy you without fail at the day, and your assurance 
shall be my brother A. Bacon's and my own bond. 

The occasion, my good cousin, and my meaning being 
by you believed, as I assure myself they shall and most 
heartily pray they may you, I cannot doubt of the friendly 
assistance of my request as a form of assurance, but look 
for such a special favour at your hands, which I shall be 
always ready and glad to acknowledge when and wherein 
soever it shall please you to employ my true good will and 
sincere affection. And so, desiring your answer, which 1 
hope shall be no less to my contentment than my resolu- 
tion of full acknowledgment to yours, I commit you to 
the protection of the Almighty, 

And rest your entire loving cousin to use, 

F. B. 

z 2 



340 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. Francis Bacon to Mr. Young. 

* * • (Orig. at Lambeth Palace, 650, 186.) 

ME. YOUNG, Gray's Inn, Sept. 2, 1594. 

I shall desire your friendly pains in the repairing 
and punishing of an outrage offered by one Thomas Lewys, 
dwelling near Whiteehapel, upon a French gentleman of 
very good quality and honourable, and my special acquaint- 
ance, and upon his company, not in terms alone, but in 
very furious assailing them. My request to you is the 
rather for the good report of our nation, whither this gen- 
tleman is come only for his own satisfaction and experience, 
that he may have experience of the good policy amongst 
us in correcting such insolences, specially upon strangers of 
his respect. And therefore desire you so great an abuse 
may be examined and corrected. And so in haste I wish 

you very well. 

Your very loving friend, 

Fr. Bacon. 

The French gentleman's name is Mr. Corugues, son 
to the principal treasurer of Guienne, and this bearer shall 
relate to you the particularities of the abuse. 

jy -ji Francis Bacon to Anthony Bacon. 

(Orig. at Lambeth Palace, 650, 227.) 
BROTHER, Gray's Inn, Dec. 10, 1594. 

I moved you to join with me in security for 500?., 
which I did purpose then decidedly to have taken up ; 
300?. odd secure, and 200?. by way of forbearance, both to 
the satisfaction of Peter Yan, our servant. I thank you, 
you assented. I have now agreed with Peter for the taking 



HIS LETTERS. 341 

up of the whole of one man's, according to which I send App. 
you the bonds and securities. You shall find the bond to IV. 11. 
be of 6001., which is one hundred more than it was at first. 
The jewel cost 500?. and odd, as shall appear to you by my 
bond. Next I send you immediately for use an agreement, 
so to free you of one hundred, for which you stand bound 
to Mr. Willis Fleetwood. So in haste I commend you to 
God's good preservation. 

Your entire loving brother, 

Fr. Bacon. 

Francis Bacon to Anthony Bacon. IV. 12. 

(Orig. at Lambeth Palace, 650, 237.) 

Good Brother, [Dec. 1594.] 

If you leave the matter to me, I am like both to 
'deal with my Lord of Essex in it, attending the first occa- 
sion, and to fortify it otherwise, as I will hereafter give you 
account. And where I doubt, acquaint you in particular 
beforehand. For Mr. Sugden, I had rather have brought 
payment than allegation. I ever doubted the resting upon 
[him] would come to nothing, and I desire you to do as you 
wish ; and yet I will endeavour to speed my part never- 
theless, and the whole if I can. 

Mr. Trott I have desired to be here after to-morrow 
to see her. He taketh this his second chance. I desired 
Dr. Hammond to visit you from me, whom I was glad to 
have here, he being a physician, and my complaint being 
want of digestion. 

I hope by this Sir Ant. Perez has seen the Queen dance. 
That is not it, but her distraction of body to be fresh and 
good, I do pray God both subjects and strangers may long 



342 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. be witnesses of. I would be sorry the bride and bride- 
IV. 12. groom should be as the weather hath fallen out : thus, it 
goes to bed fan, and rises lowering. Thus I commend you 
to God's best preservation. 

Your entire loving brother, 

Fr. Bacon. 

jy j3 ' Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury. 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 
IT MAY PLEASE YOUR IjOKDSHIP, [1607.] 

I send the two bills according to your Lordship's 
pleasure signified to me, hoping your Lordship will pardon 
me that they come not precisely at the hour. The book 
is long and full of difficulty ; and a business such as this is, 
I do not much trust to servants or precedents. I found it 
more convenient to put one payment more upon the Privy 
Seal than your Lordship directed, and to take it from the 
rent; because else, the grant must have been for ten 
years and a half, which is not formal. So I most humbly 
leave, 

And rest your Lordship's most humble and bounden, 

F. Bacon. 

jy 24 Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury. 

(Orig. in the State Paper Office.) 
IT MAY PLEASE YOUR LOEDSHIP, 28th October, 1608. 

According to your Lordship's warrant of the 15th 
of June last I made a book ready for his Majesty's signa- 
ture to the use of Mrs. Ellis of the benefit of an extent of 
the lands and goods of Richard Yonge her father, extended 
for a debt of 3000/. upon recognizances ; which book is 



HIS LETTEKS. 343 

since past the Great Seal. And now having received order App. 
from your Lordship for amendment of the defects in that IV. 14. 
patent, I find the case to be thus, — That she has since dis- 
covered two other debts of record, the one of 85111. 19s. 4:d., 
the other of 2100/., remaining upon account in the Pipe 
Office. And though it be true that she shall reap no 
benefit by the former grant, except these debts be likewise 
released, on regard the King may come upon the said lands 
and goods for these debts, — and it may be the meaning was 
in Queen Elizabeth to free and acquit Mr. Yonge of all 
debts ; for else Quid te exenipta juvat spinis depluribus una ? 
— yet do I not see how I may pass the book again, with a 
release of these two debts, without your Lordship's further 
warrant, which I humbly submit to your honourable consi- 
deration. 

Your Lordship's most humble and bounden, 

Fk. Bacon. 

Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury. IV. 15. 

(Orig. in the State Paper Office.) 

Gray's Inn, the 6th of July, 1609. 

It may please your Lordship, 

The assurance which by your Lordship's directions 
was to be passed to his Majesty by Richard Forebenche, 
one of the yeomen of the guard of Potter's Park, within 
the parish of Chertsey, in the county of Surrey, is tho- 
roughly perfected ; so if your Lordship so please he may 
receive the money your Lordship agreed to pay for it. 

Your Lordship's most humble and bounden, 

Fs. Bacon. 



344 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury. 

IV. 16. 

(Orig. in the State Paper Office.) 

It may please youk good Lordship, 

Though Mr. Chancellor and we rested upon the old 
proclamation which Mr. Attorney brought forth, for matter 
of transportation of gold and silver, yet because I could not 
tell whither it were that your Lordship looked for from us, 
and because if you should be of other opinion things might 
be in readiness, I send your Lordship a draught of a new 
proclamation, wherein I have likewise touched the point of 
change in that manner as was most agreeable to that I 
conceived of your intent ; the Frenchman, after I had given 
him a day, which was the morrow after your Lordship's 
departure, never attended nor called upon the matter since. 
Sir Henry Nevill has sent up a solicitor of the cause, to 
whom I perceive by Mr. Calvert your Lordship is pleased 
a copy of his answer when it shall be taken may be de- 
livered. So, praying for your good health and happiness, I 
humbly take my leave from Gray's Inn, this 10th of 
August, 1609. 

Your Lordship's most humble and bounden, 

Fs. Bacon. 

IV. 17 Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury. 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 

Gray's Inn, the 13th of Sept. 1609. 

It may please your Lordship, 

According to your Lordship's letter, I send an 
abstract of the bonds and conditions touching the depopu- 
lation, whereby it will appear unto your Lordship that all 



HIS LETTERS. 345 

the articles and branches of the condition consist only of App. 
matter of reformation in the country, and not of any benefit IV. 17. 
to the King, otherwise than that the forfeiture in point of 
law belongeth to his Majesty ; but then the reformation is 
at large. So I very humbly take my leave. 

Your Lordship's most humble and bounden, 

Fs. Bacon. 



Francis Bacon to Sir Julius Caesar. IV, 18. 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 

It may please your Honour, Aug. 23, ieio. 

In answer of your letter of the second of this present, 
but not delivered to my hands till the 20th thereof, con- 
cerning Sir Robert Steward his petition exhibited to his 
Majesty in the name of Edward Williams, for the new 
founding of the Hospital of St. John's in the town of 
Bedford, I have examined the state of the cause, as far as 
information may be expected by hearing the one side ; and 
do find : That this hospital passed divers years since by 
a Patent of Concealment to Farneham, from whom the 
petitioner claimeth. That thereupon suit was commenced 
in the Exchequer, wherein it seemeth the Court found that 
strength in the King's title, as it did order the hospital 
should receive a new foundation, together with divers good 
articles of establishment of the good uses, and an allowance 
of stipend unto the master. Nevertheless, I find not this 
order to be absolute or merely judicial ; , but in the nature 
of a composition or agreement; and yet that but con- 
ditional : for it directeth a course of judicial proceeding, in 
case the defendants shall not hold themselves to the agree- 
ment. And yet notwithstanding this order had this life 



346 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. and pursuance, as I find a letter from the Lord-Treasurer, 
IY. 18. his Lordship's father, to the then Attorney, for drawing up 
a book for the new foundation. After which time nothing- 
was done for aught that to me appeareth : no patent under 
seal, no stirring of the possession, no later order : neither 
doth it appear unto me likewise in whose default the falling 
off was. But now of late, some four years past, and about 
fourteen years after the former order, upon information 
given of the King's right to the late Lord-Treasurer, Earl 
of Dorset, his Lordship directed a sequestration of the 
possession, and that without any mention of these former 
proceedings ; but that, being as it seemeth swiftly granted, 
was soon after by his Lordship revoked. The pretenders 
unto the right of this hospital (with whom likewise the 
possession hath gone) are as it seemeth the master of the 
hospital (at this time one Dennis) and the town of Bedford, 
who claim the patronage of it. But in what state the 
hospital is for repair, or for employment according unto 
the good uses, or for government, I can ground no certifi- 
cate. And therefore it may please you to signify unto his 
Lordship as well the state of the cause heretofore opened, 
as my opinion, which is that it were great pity that this 
hospital should continue either not well founded, or not 
well employed, the rather being situate in so populous and 
poor a town ; and that, nevertheless, herein some considera- 
tion may be had of the patentee's right ; but for the present, 
that which is first meet to be done, I conceive to be that 
the other party be heard ; and to the end to avoid a tedious 
suit (which must be defended with the moneys that should 
go to the sustenance of the poor), his Lordship may 
be graciously pleased to direct his letters as well to the 
town of Bedford as to the present incumbent, that they do 
attend a summary hearing of this cause (if his own great 



HIS LETTERS. 347 

business will not permit), before some other that he shall App. 
assign ; in which letters it would be expressed that they IV. 18. 
come provided to make defence and answer to three points : 
that is, the King's title now in the patentee ; the order and 
agreement in the Exchequer, why it was not performed ; 
and the estate of the hospital, whether it be decayed and 
misemployed ? And so I leave to trouble your Honour 
from Gray's Inn, 23rd August, 1610. 

Your Honour's, to do you service, 

Fe. Bacon. 



Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury. IV. 19, 

(Orig. in the State Paper Office.) 

London, the 7th of May, 1611. 

It may please youk good Loedship, 

Understanding that his Majesty will be pleased to 
sell some good portion of wood in the Forest of Dene, which 
lies very convenient to the company's wireworks at Tynterne 
and Whitbrooke, we are enforced to have recourse to your 
Lordship as to our governor of the said company, humbly 
praying your Lordship to afford us some reasonable quantity 
thereof, the better to uphold the said works, whereof by 
information from our farmers there we stand in such need 
as without your Lordship's favour we shall hardly be able 
to subsist any long time. We do not entreat your Lord- 
ship for any other or more easy price than that your 
Lordship directs the sale of it to other, only we humbly 
pray for some preferment in the opportunity of the place 
where the woods lie and in the quantity, as it may answer 
in some proportion to our wants. Herein, if your Lordship 
will be pleased to favour us, then we humbly pray your 



348 FRANCIS BACON. 

A pp - Lordship to direct us to some such persons as your Lordship 
IV. U. resolves to employ in the business. And so we humbly 
take our leaves of your Lordship. 

Your Lordship's humbly at command, 

Fk. Bacon. 

IY. 20. Francis Bacon to the Earl of Salisbury. 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 

It may please your Lordship, October, i6ii. 

I return your good Lord's minute, excellently, in 
my opinion, reformed from the first draught in some points 
of substance. I send likewise a clause warranting the 
subject to refuse gold lighter than the remedies expressed, 
which is no new device, but the same with 29th Eliz. I 
find also Mr. Dubbleday to make it a thing difficult to 
name the pieces of more ancient coin than his Majesty's, 
for which I have likewise sent a clause. This last clause 
is immediately to follow the table of the coins expressed. 
The clause of the weight is to come last of all. So, with 
my prayers, I rest 

Your Lordship's most humble and bounden, 

Fr. Bacon. 

IV. 21. Francis Bacon to King James. 

(Orig. in the State Paper Office.) 

January 31st, 1615. 

Though I placed Peacham's treason within the last 

division, agreeable to divers predecessors, whereof I had 

the records read, and concluded that your Majesty's safety, 

and life, and authority was thus by law instanced and 



HTS LETTERS. 349 

quartered, and that it was in vain to fortify on three of the App. 
heads and leave you open on the fourth, it is true he IV. 21. 
heard me in a grave fashion more than accustomed, and 
took a pen and took notes of my divisions ; and when he 
read the precedent and records would say, That you mean 
falleth within your first or your second division. In the 
end I expressly demanded his opinion as that whereto both 
he and I was enjoined. But he desired me to leave the 
precedents with him that he might advise upon them. I 
told him the rest of my fellows would despatch their part, 
and I should be behind with mine, which I persuaded 
myself your Majesty would impute rather to his backward- 
ness than my negligence. He said as soon as I should 
understand that the rest were ready he would not be long 
after with his opinion or answer. For St. John's your 
Majesty knoweth the day draws on, and my Lord Chancel- 
lor's recovery the season and his age promiseth not to be 
hasty. I spoke with him on Sunday, at what time I found 
him in bed, but his spirits strong and not spent or wearied, 
and spake wholly of your business, leading me from one 
matter to another, and wished and seemed to hope that he 
might attend the day for St. John's, as it were (as he said) 
to be his last work, to commend his service and express his 
affection towards your Majesty. I presumed to say to him 
that I knew your Majesty would be exceeding desirous of 
his being present that day, so as it might be without pre- 
judice to his continuance ; but that otherwise your Majesty 
esteemed a servant more than a service, specially such a 
servant. Surely, in my opinion, your Majesty had better 
put off the day than want his presence, considering the 
cause of the putting off is so notorious, and then the capital 
and the criminal may come together the next term. I 
have not been unprofitable in helping to discover and 



350 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. examine within these few days a late patent by surreption 
IV. 21. obtained from yonr Majesty of the greatest forest in Eng- 
land, worth 30,000£., under colour of a defective title, for 
a matter of 4:001. The person must be named, because the 
patent must be questioned. It is a great person, my Lord 
of Shrewsbury, or rather, as I think, a greater than he, 
which is my Lady of Shrewsbury. But I humbly beg your 
Majesty to know this first from my Lord Treasurer ; who 
me thinketh groweth ever studious in your business. God 
preserve your Majesty. 

Your Majesty's most humble and devoted 
subject and servant, 

Fr. Bacon. 

The rather in regard of Mr. Murray's absence, I humbly 
pray your Majesty to have a little regard to this letter. 

IV. 22. Fkancis Bacon to the Council. 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 

It may please your Lordships, Jan. 27, 1616 [1617]. 

According to your Lordships' preference of the 12th 
of June last, I have considered of the patent of Clement 
Dawbeny, gent., for the slitting of iron bars into rods. 
And I have had before me the patentee that now is, and 
some of the nailers and blacksmiths that complained 
against the same. Whereupon it pleased your Lordships 
to call in the said patent. But upon examination of the 
business I find the complaint to be utterly unjust, and was 
first stirred up by one Burrell, master carpenter to the 
East India Company, who hath already of himself begone 
to set up the like engine in Ireland, and therefore en- 



HIS LETTERS. 351 

deavoured to overthrow the said patent, the better to vent A pp. 

his own iron to his further benefit and advantage, whereas IV. 22. 

the nailers and blacksmiths themselves do all affirm that 

they are now supplied by the patentee with as much good 

and serviceable iron, or rather better, than heretofore they 

have been, and that the said patent hath been of much use 

to the kingdom in general, and likewise very beneficial to 

themselves in their trades. And, therefore, your Lordships 

may be pleased to suffer him quietly to enjoy it without 

any further interruption, and to this did Burrell himself 

and the opposers willingly condescend, which nevertheless 

I submit to the wisdom of this most honourable Board. 

Fk. Bacon. 

TV 93 

Francis Bacon to King James. v * 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 

March, 1617. 

The gracing of the Justices of Peace. That your 
Majesty doth hold the institution of Conservators and 
Commissioners or Justices of the Peace to be one of the 
most laudable and politic ordinances of this realm or any 
other realm. That it is not your own goodness or 
virtues, nor the labours of your counsel or Judges, that 
can make your people happy, without things go well 
amongst the Justices, who are the conduits to convey 
the happy streams of your government to your people. 
That your Majesty would as soon advance and call a 
knight or gentleman that liveth in an honourable and 
worthy fashion in his country ; and it were to be of 
your counsel or to office about yourself, your Queen, or 
son, or an Ambassador employed in foreign parts, or a 
courtier bred an attendant about your person. That your 
Majesty is and will be careful to understand the country 



352 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. as well as your court for persons, and that those that are 
IV. 23. worthy servants in the country shall not need to have their 
dependence upon any the greatest subject in your kingdom, 
but immediately upon yourself. 



IV. 24. Francis Bacon to Lord Zouch. 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 

Gorkanibuiy, 3rd August, 1619. 

Whereas there are processes gone out, at Mr. Attor- 
ney General's prayer, against Hugh Hugginson and Josias 
Ente, concerning the business against the Dutchmen in 
Star Chamber; out of a desire to preserve the ancient 
privileges and customs due to your place, not to serve 
such process within your jurisdiction without your leave 
and consent, I thought good hereby to desire your Lord- 
ship for his Majesty's service, that you would cause them 
forthwith to be sent up to answer Mr. Attorney's bill, and 
abide such further proceedings as their case shall require. 

IV. 25. Francis Bacon to King James. 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 

May it please your Majesty, Oct. 1626 [? 1620]. 

. According to your commandment I have considered 
of your patent granted about the time of your going into 
Scotland unto Mr. Murray and Sir Kob 1 Lloyd, of a custom 
or duty detained from your Majesty of one shilling four 
pence upon the cloth and 2s. in the pound upon certain 
Northern cloth, by colour of a Privy Seal [of] Queen Eliza- 
beth and of a former Seal certificate made by the Earl of 
Suffolk, then Lord Treasurer, Mr. Chancellor that now is, 



HIS LETTERS. 353 

and myself, then your Attorney-General, upon which cer- A pp. 
tificate the patent did pass. — And do find that the said IV. 25. 
certificate is very true and well grounded, wherein I have 
strengthened myself with the opinion of your new Solicitor, 
so that there is no doubt but the right was and is in your 
Majesty, and the thud part thereof was sufficiently granted 
unto them, who nevertheless submit their interest (being 
for one-and-twenty years) unto your Majesty. But to suffer 
the patent to go on to operation, either for your Majesty's 
two parts or their third part, considering that the mer- 
chants have been in long past of that ease, and that cloth 
is now loaden with the pretermitted duty which was not 
before (and of which this is no part), and [damaged] the 
state of the trade of cloth hath been weakened [damaged] 
for that is concerned the cost of some of the out ports 
..... not in any sort advise it, but humbly leave it to 
your Majesty's . . . r judgment. 

Francis Bacon to Secretary Conway. ^"* 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 

Good Mk. Secretary, Jan. 21, 1623. 

When you visited me you expressed in so noble a 
fashion a vif sense of my misfortunes, as I cannot but 
express myself no less sensible of your good fortune, and 
therefore do congratulate with you for your new honour 
now settled. The excellent Marquis brought me yesterday 
to kiss the King's hands, so as now methinks I am in the 
state of grace. Think of me and speak of me as occasion 
serveth. I shall want no will to deserve it. At best, noble- 
ness is never lost. I rest your affectionate friend, to do 

you service, * 

Francis St. Albans. 

2 A 



354 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. 

jy 27. Francis Bacon to Secretary Conway. 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 
GOOD Mk. SeCKETARY, Gray's Inn, 3rd of June, 1624. 

This gentleman, Mr. Richard Gilruan, who hath 
been (?) towards me, hath served formerly in Scinde and 
Russia and the Low Countries, and is suitor now for a 
lieutenant's place in these succours which are now to be 
sent. I recommend his suit unto you, and shall give you 
very hearty thanks if, for my sake, you will pleasure him. 

I rest your very affectionate friend, 

Fs. St. Albans. 



No. V. 
V. 1. Patent Koll, 16 Elizabeth, Part 6, Memb. 3. 



wardo Bacon, ar- 
migero 



Regina omib3 ad quos, etc., saltm. 
P« /I^tL? J? I J ^ciatis qd nos in consideracoe qd dit- 
cus subditus nr Edwardus Bacon, ar- 
mig, non solum sup se assumpsit 
nos hered et successor nros exoniare de solucoe quatuor 
librae et decern solido^ £ feod custod parci nri de 
Istleworth als diet' the newe Parke of Richemonde in 
Coin nro Midd' annuatim allocat' sed eciam de on}il:>3 
repaconu oniu domoi^ et edificio^ in dco Parco existea' 
et manutenc' inclaus' pdict' parci cum sepibz et fossa? 
cum quibz feod et onftb3 nos ad psens ofeit sum 9 tra- 
didim 9 concessim 9 et ad firmam dimisim 9 , ac p psentes 
t a clim 9 coucedim 9 et ad firmam dimittim 9 prato Edwardo 



GRANT TO EDWARD BACON. 355 

Bacon totum ilium parcum nrm de Istleworth ats diet' App. 
the new Parke of Kichmonde cum ptiri' in Coin nro y i 
Midd', ac omes Pras nras prat' et pastur' in dco parco modo 
vel nup inclus' cont' p estimacoem. octoginta septem acr', 
necnon omia domos, logeas, edificia, gardin', pomar, stagn', 
aquas et piscacoes in pco p>dco existeri', seu eidem ptineii' ; 
aceciam totam illam primam vesturam et tonsur triii pcett 
prati in prato voc' Ferie meade, ext a parcum pdem jacefi 
p Kivu Thames' cont' p estimacoem duodecem acr, ac 
totam illam primam vesturam et tonsur unius pcett terr in 
coi prato voc More meade, ext a dem parcum insimul jacefi 
ad Boriat finem dci prati, in? Rivu Thames' ibm ex parte 
occiden et coe campum ibm voc Twickenham feild, ex 
parte oriental contineh p estimacoem quinc^ acr et dimid. 
Que quidem tres pcelle prati in prato voc Ferie meade, et 
pcett prati in coi prato voc More meade, nup domui Sion 
in dco Com Midd' spectabant et ptinebant, ac pcett' Trai^ 
et possession^ dci nup domus quondam extiter' et ^pfic 
prime vestur' et tonsur' eai^dem p custod parci jMict' 
pcept' et gavis' sunt : exceptis tamen semp et noB hered 
et successor nris omio reSvat omib3 grossis, arborib3, boscis, 
subboscis miner et quarr pmissoi^. Hend et tenenct pdem 
parcum domos, logeas, edificia, gard, pomar, stagh, terr, 
pastur, prat', vestur, et tonsur pratoi^ ac cePa omia pmissa 
supius in hiis psent' dimiss' cum eo^ ptiri unifsis, (excep- 
tis ptexceptis), pfato Edwardo Bacon, execut' et assign 
suis, a festo Sci Michis Arclii ultimo pPito us% ad finem 
?mini et p Pminu viginti et unius annoi^ extunc p£ sequeii 
et plenar complend, reddendo annuatim nofc hered et suc- 
cess' nris, de et £ fMco parco cum ptin, sex libras et septem 
solidos ; ac de et ^ prima vestur et tonsur dcax^ triii pcel- 
laip prati in prato voc Ferie meade, viginti et quatuor 
solidos ; ac de et p prima vestur et tonsur pdee pcelle Pre 

2 a 2 



356 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. in coi prato voc More meade, undecem solid legalis monete 
V. 1. Angl ad festa Annunciacois fete Marie vginis et Sci Micnis 
Arcni, ad manus ballivo^ vel receptor pinisso^ p tem- 
pore existefi p equales porcoes solvend, durante fmino 
pdco. Et p>dcus Edwardus Bacon executores et assignati 
sui nos lieredes et successores nros de quatuor libris et 
decern solidis p feod custod pci jMict' solvend annuatim et 
de tempore in tempus exonlabunt aoquietabnnt et in- 
dempnes con§vabunt durante ?mino jMco. Et ulPius 
pdcus Edwardus Bacon, executores et assignati sui, omia 
domos et edificia ac omia sepes, fossata et inclur parci 
pdict', cum fossat' sepib3 et le quicksett; necnon omes 
alias necessar repac pmisso^ (p^qam in Pallac) in omib3 
et p omia de tempore in tempus tociens quociens necesse 
et oportunii fGit sumptib3 suis et expensis bene et suffi- 
cient repabunt, supportabunt, sustinebunt et manutenebunt 
durante fmino jMco, ac pmissa sufficient repata et manu- 
tenta in fine £mini illius dimittent. Et volum 9 ac p 
psentes concedim 9 pfato Edwardo Bacon execut' et assign 
suis qd bene licebit eis et eoi^ cuitt de tempore in tempus 
cape, pcipe et Here de, in et sup j^missis crescen, competes 
et sufficien houseboote, hedgebote, firebote, ploughboote, et 
carteboote ibm et non alibi annuatim expendend et occu- 
pand duran ftnino pdco. Et qd neant maer in boscis et 
terris pmissor^ crescen ad et fsus repacoes domoi^ et 
edificiorp pmisso^ p assignac et supvicoem Senescalli seu 
subsenescalli aut alioi^ officiarioi^ nroi^ hered et succes- 
^o^ nrorp ibm p tempore existeri duraii Pmino jMco. Pro- 
viso semp qd si contigit pdcos sepales redd supius reSvat 
aut eo:^ aliquem aretro fore non solut in parte vel in toto 
(si debito modo petant 1- ) p spaciu quadraginta die:^ post 
aliquod festum festoi^ pdcoi^ quout pfert r solvi. debeant, 
qd tunc et deinceps hec pteens dimissio et concessio vacua 



GRANTS FROM THE CROWN. 357 

sit ac <p nullo fieat r aliquo in p ) sentib3 in cont a rium inde App. 
non obstafi : aliquo statuto, etc. In cujus rei, etc. T' : R' : V. 1 
apud Westm Pcio die Marcii. 

p Warrari Comissionar. 

Patent Koll, 38 Elizabeth, Part 6, Memb. 25. V. 2. 



D' con firm <p 
Francisco Bacon, 
armigo. 



Regina 0111103 ad quos, etc., saftm. 
Sciatis qd nos tarn <p fine quadraginta 
solido^ legalis monete Angl ad Re- 
cept Sc a cii nri ad usum nrum p ditcm 
et fidelem nrni Franciscurn Bacon, armigum, unu de Con- 
silio nro, erudito in lege, solut, q a m p diesis aliis causis et 
consideracoib3, de avisamen dilcoi^ et fideliu Consiliario^ 
nro^, Willi, Baronis de Burghly, Thesaurar nri Angl, et 
Joins Fortescue, militis, Cancellar et Subthesaurar Cur 
Sc a cii nri, t a didim 9 , concessim 9 et ad firmam dhnisim 9 , ac 
p jpsentes t a dim 9 , concedim 9 et ad firmam dimittim 9 pfato 
Francisco Bacon, totam ill: parcellam nram bosci vel Pre 
boscalis, jacen, crescefi et existen infra forestam de Zelwood, 
in Coin nro Soms', vocat' et cognit per nomen the Pittf, 
continen p estimacoem sexaginta acras, sive plus sive 
minus, ac oines copicias, arbores putridas, Anglice diet' 
seare or clottrell trees, or shells, or stubbes, et virgult', 
Anglice diet' shrubbs, sup prnissa crescefi sive existen, 
unacum omib3 locis aptis Anglice diet' Cleares or lawnes 
in pdcis tris boscalib3 content', necnon herbagiu prnissoi}, ; 
ac omia pficua, comoditates, advantagia, emolumenta, et 
hereditamenta nra quecunq^ de p>dict parcel! bosci vel Pre 
boscalis vocat the Pyttf, acciden, renovafi sive entgen, 
parcel! Maner de Marston Bigott in dco Com nro Soms. 
Exceptis tamen semp et nobis, heredib3 et successor^ 
nris omino reservat', omib3 arborib3 maer existen, ac omib3 



358 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. hujusmocli pulchris lej saplinges quercuu aptis, fieri vel 

Y. 2. fore maeren necnon sufficien lez staddells in quart acra 

pnrisso:^ scdm formam statuti in eo casu nup edit' et cpvis'. 

Hend: et tenend pdict' parcel! bosci ac cePa oiriia et singula 

pmissa cum ptifi (except' pexcept') ptfato Francisco Bacon, 

executory et assign suis a festo Aiiunciacois be Marie 

Virginis ultimo pPito us% ad finem £mini viginti et unius 

annoi^ extunc q£ sequeii et plenarie complend, Keddendo 

inde annuatim nob, heredib3 et successor^ nris, septem 

libras et decern solidos legalis monete Angi ad festa Sci 

Mictlis Archi et Aiiunciacois be Marie Virginis ad Kecept 

Sc a cii nri seu ad manus Ballivoi^ vel Keceptoi^ pmissoi^ 

<p tempore existefi p equales porcoes solvend duran £mino 

pdco. Et pdcus Franciscus Bacon, executores et assign 

sui, nisi duas succisiones tantum bosco^ pdict' infra ?minu 

p jpsentes concess fac seu fieri causabunt, ac eosdem 

boscos temporib3 congruis <p succisione bosco^ et non aliP 

succident, necnon dcos bosc sic p ipm seu assign suos suc- 

cisos cum fossat vel sepib3 bene et sufficient includent et 

incipic ac a morsu conculcacoe et damno aialiu jpservabunt 

et custodient abs% imposicoe aliquoi^ equoi^ aut aialiu in 

eisdem, qui virgult et lez springf * eosdem boscoi} led® 

possint durante ?mino in statute q hujusmodi genere 

bosco^ limitat; Necnon sufficien lez staddells in qualt 

acra Pre boscal scdm formam statuti in eo casu nup edit et 

.pvis dimittent et relinquent. Aceciam has Iras nras 

patentes tarn coram Auditore nro Com pPdict' p oftacoe 

reddit jMict' infra spaciu unius anni px sequeii post dat 

haip Irar^ urai^ patenciu q^m coram Supvisore nro bosc 

nroi^ cit a Trentham <p supvis pformacoe Convene pdict 

anteq a m aliquam succisionem in boscis fMict fac irrotula- 

bunt seu irrotulari causabunt. Proviso semp qd si contigit 

pdict' reddit' supnis p psentes reservat' aretro fore non 



GRANTS FEOM THE CJLIOWN. 359 

solut' m parte vel in toto p spaciu quadraginta dier^. post App. 
aliquod festum festorum pdcoi},, quout jpfert r solvi debeat, V. 2. 
qd tunc et deinceps hec psens dimissio et concessio vacua 
sit ac £ nullo lieat 1 ', aliquo in p ) sentib3 incontr a iu inde non 
obstan ; aliquo statuto, etc. In cujus rei, etc. T' # apud 
Westm 1 , xiiij die Julii. 

p Warraii Comissionar. 



Patent Eoll, 38 Elizabeth, Part 6, Memb. 20. y § 3. 



D' con firm p 
Francisco Bacon, 
armigo, et Jo. 
Hibberd. 



' Regina Omib3 ad quos, etc., saltm. 
Sciatis qd nos tarn in consideracoe 
boni, fidelis et longi 3 vie nob p ditcm 
Sviefi nrm Radum Fletcher, unti 
Valett' de le Yestrie in Hospicio nro, 
antehac fact' et unpens' q a m |) quibusdam aliis causis et 
consideracoib3 nos spialn moventib3, Necnon ad humilem 
peticoem pdci Radi Fletcher de gra nra splali ac ex Sta 
scientia et rnero motu nris, Tradidim 9 , concessim 9 et ad 
firm dimisinr 5 , ac p pteentes £> nob, heredib3 et successor^ 
nris t^dim 9 , concedim 9 et ad firm dimittim 9 diico nob 
Francisco Bacon, Armigo, Tenenti nro, totum ill: parcum 
nrm de Istleworth, alias diet', The new parke of Richmond, 
cum ptin, in Com nro Midd', Ac omia ?ras, prat' et pastur 
in dco parco modo vel nup indu's", continefi p estimacoem 
octoginta septem acras, Necnon ofhia domos, logeas, edi- 
ficia, gardina, pomaria, stagna aquas et piscacoes in parco 
pdeo existeii, seu eidem ptineii ; Aceciam totam . illam 
primam vesturam et tonsur triu sepaliu prat' in prato 
vocat' Ferry meade, ext* parcum jMict' p rivii Thamesis, 
contineii p estimacoem duodecim acras, Ac totam illam 
primam. vestur et tonsur unius parcelle prati in coi prat' 
vocat Moremeade, ext* dem parcum insimul jacen ad 



360 FKANC1S BACON. 

App. boreal fmero dci prati, in? rivu Thamisis ibidem ex parte 
V. 3. occiden, et coem campum ibidem, vocat' Twikenham feilde, 
ex parte orientali, contiii p estimacoem quino^ acras dimid. 
Quequidern tres parcelle prati in prato vocat' Ferry meade 
et parcelr prati in coi prato vocat' Moremeade, nup domui 
Sion in dco Com Midd' spectabant et ptinebant, ac parcel! 
'frar^ et possessionu dee nup domus quondam extiterunt ; 
Et pficua prime vesture et tonsure eo^dem p Custodem 
parci pdei pcept' et gavisa fuerunt. Quodquidem parcum 
et ce?a pmissa p psentes dimiss' dee nup domui Sion in 
dco Com Midd' spectan et ptin ac parcel! possessionu inde 
quondam existen ac cuidam Miloni Doddinge, generoso, p 
Iras nras patentes magno Sigillo nro Angi sigillat' geren 
dat' apud Westm, decimo die Augusti, Anno regni nri 
vicesimo ?cio p ?mino triginta annor, in Anno Dni Miftimo, 
quingentesimo nonagesimo quarto, et p annual reddit octo 
librae et duoi^ solido:^ (in? alia) dimiss' et concessa 
fuerunt, Ac omia alia pficua comoditates, advantagia, 
emolumenta et hereditanien nra quecunq^ pdict' parco et 
ee?is pmissis p fPsentes dimiss' ullo modo spectan vel 
ptineft, aut ut niembr' partes vel pcelf p>dict parci et ce?oi; 
pmisso^ antehac usuali? p reddit' inferius pinde reservat'. 
dimiss', locat', nit', cognit', accept', usitat', occupaf, re 
putat' seu gavis' existen. Sciatis ulterius qct nos tarn in 
consideracoe Svicii p>dci Kadi Fletcher, q a m p considera- 
cob3 sup a dict', de ampliori gra nra spiali, ac ex Sta sciencia 
et mero motu nris, Tradidim 9 , concessim 9 et ad firmam 
dhnisim 9 , ac p psentes p nofc, heredib3 et successor^ nris, 
t^dini 9 concedim 9 et ad firm dimittim^, fideli subdito nro 
Jolii Hibberd, oines illas quinquaginta et septem acras et 
decern pticat' terr arrabit et pastur, sive plus sive minus, 
cum eoif ptin, uni^sis sepatim jacefi et existen in Whaplodd, 
in Coin nro Lincoln, nup in tenura sive occupacoe Thome 



GRANTS FROM THE CROWN. 361 

Pinchbeck et Kici Bennett vel assign suoi^ sive eo^ altius, Apr 
ac modo in tenura sive occupacoe Thome Middlecote vel V. 3. 
assign suo^. annual reddit' Quatuor libra^, et triu solidor^ ; 
Ac oihes illas decern acras ?re arrabil prati et pastur cum 
ptin, jaceh et existen in vift et campis de Whaplodd pdict' 
in jMco Com, quondam in tenura sive occupacoe Johis 
Parker et nup in tenur Willi Skarlett, et modo vel nup in 
tenura sive occupacoe Johis Dawson et Thome Dawson, 
vel assign suoip seu assign eo^ alPius; Ac totam illam 
pastur nram vocat' Souterland jacefi et existen in diet' viil 
et Campis de Whaplodd pdict', quondam in tenura sive 
occupacoe dci JoKis Parker, et modo in tenura sive occu- 
pacoe jklci Willi Skarlett vel assign suo^ annual reddit' 
in? se triginta duoi^ solidoj^ et octo denarioi^. Quequidem 
pmissa in Whaplodd pdict sunt parcel! Maffii nri de 
Whaplodd, ac nup Monastio de Crowland quondam spectaii 
et ptin, ac parcell fa:^ et possessions inde quondam exti- 
terunt, ac pfat' Thome Middlecote p Iras paten magno 
sigillo nro Angl sigillat', gereii dat' apud Westni, vicesimo 
quarto die Julii, Anno regni nri tricesimo sco!o, <p ?mino 
viginti et unius annoi^ incipiend a Festo Afiunciacois Be 
Marie Virginis tunc ultime pteo, Keddend annuatim noB, 
heredib3 et successor^ nris de et p omib3 pPmissis in 
tenura Thome Middlecote (ut pfert 1 ') existen, Quatuor 
libras et tres solidos, ac de et p pinissis in sepal tenur 
pdict' Thome Dawson, JoKis Dawson et Willi Skarlett (ut 
pfert 1 ) existen, triginta duos solidos et octo denarios (in? 
alia) dimiss' et concess' fuerunt ; Ac totum ill Scit' Maner 
de Roxham cum suis jurib3, membris et ptin univ'sis in 
jMco Com nro Lincoln, Ac omia edific, horrea, stabul, 
Columbar, hortos, pomar et gardin eidem spectaii, cum suis 
ptin, unii toftum continefi p estimacoem tres rod, duo 
croft' continefi p estimacoem duas acras sive plus sive 



362 FRANCIS BACON. 

Apr minus cum eo^ ptin, ac duas acras prati cum ptin, novem 
V. 3. bovat' £re, prat' sive pastur, contineii p estimacoem ducent' 
et viginti acras cum ptin, Centum acr £re et pastur vulga- 
ris nuncupat' p nomen vel noia de lez unknowen landf 
diet' Scit' Maner spectan, tot' ill pastur ^ trescent' ovib3 
cum suis jurib3 et ptin, ac omes illas £ras mariscat' sive 
Coias in marisc ibidem seu alibi diet' Scit' ptin, parceit 
Manlii nri de Kuskington in dco Com nro Lincoln, ac par- 
cel! Srai^ et possessionii Thome nup Ducis Norff attincti, 
ac cuidam Thome Horseman, GenJoso, p Iras nras pateii 
dat' vicesimo septimo die Marcii, Anno regni nri tricesimo 
fcio p ?mino viginti et unius annoi^ incipiend a Festo 
Anunciacois 'be Marie Yirginis tunc ultimo p^ito et g 
annual reddit' quadraginta novem solidoi}, et sex denarioi}, 
dimiss' et concess' ; ac totum illud ten nrm ac omes illas 
tras eidem ten spectan cum ptin, ac tot' ill clans' cum suis 
ptifi scitua? jacen et existeri in Stewkeley in Com nro 
Hunt', nup in tenura Thome Anthony e, et modo in tenura 
sive occupacoe Lawrencii Torkinton vel assign suoi^, nup 
Priorat' de Huntingdon quondam spectan et ptin ac pcerl 
fara:^ et possession^ inde quondam existeii, ac pfato Lau- 
rencio Torkington p Iras nras pateii, gereri dat' undecimo 
die Maii, Anno regni nri vicesimo octavo p fmino viginti 
et unius annoi^ incipiend a festo Anunciacois be Marie 
Virginis tunc ultimo p^ito et |? annual reddit' quinqua- 
ginta solido^ dimiss' et concess', ac oihia ilia duo claus' 
prati et pastur jacen in Cowbridge in Grlaston, in Coin nro 
Som'sett, modo vel nup in tenura sive occupacoe Joins 
Howthins vel assign suoi^, ac tot' ill virgult' in occidental 
parte parci de Wherewell, in tenura Jofiis Payne, ac totum 
illud cotagiu in Bovetowne in Glaston pdict, cum curtillag 
et quinty acris et una rocla ?re arrabilis in Campis ibidem, 
modo vel nup in tenura Kici Sargant, ac omnes illas duas 



GRANTS FROM THE CROWN. 363 

acras Pre arrabil in duob3 campis ibidem, roodo vel nup in App. 
tenura Laurencii Dovell, aceciam omes illas duas acras V. 3. 
pastur jaceii in Brundham in tenura Mathei Marten vel 
assign suor^ . Quequidem pmissa sunt par ceil Maffiii nri de 
Glaston, ac parcel! Prai^ et possession^ Edwardi nup Ducis 
Sorrrs, ac cuidam Nicho Coleman p Iras nras paten, gerefi 
dat' apud Westm, decimo nono die Maii, Anno regni nri 
tricesimo scdo, <p Pmino viginti et unius annoi^ , incipiend a 
festo Anunciacois Be Marie Virginis tunc ultimo p^ito, et 
p sepal annual reddit' octo solidoi^, duoi^. solidor^, triu 
solidoiv et quatuor denario^,, duoi^ solid, et duoiq, solidoi^ 
dimiss' et concess' fuerunt ; Aceciam totum illud Molen- 
dinu aquaticum nrm vocat' Farneham Myll, cum ptifi, 
scituat' jaceii et existen apud Farneliam Eoyall in Com 
nro Buclf, ac omia ill duo clausa nra jaceii et existen in 
Farneham Koyall <pdict' vocat' the great Bownes and the 
little bownes, ac omes iHas Pras, arrabiles et prat' nr eidem 
Molendino aliquo modo spectan vel ptifi, parcel! Maner nri 
de Farneham Eoyall, parcell possessions pquisit' de Fran- 
cisco nup Comite Salop, ac postea nob concess' ante acces- 
sum nrm ad Coronam hujus regni nri Anglie, ac dimiss' 
cuidam Witlo Coxe p Iras nras pateii magno sigillo nro 
Anglie sigillat', geren dat' quartodecimo die Marcii, Anno 
regni nri undecimo, |> Pmino viginti et unius anno^, inci- 
piend a tempore quo quedam dimiss' cuidam Antonio 
Eeade, Gen!oso, de eisdem fcta <p Pmino viginti et unius 
annoi^ p Iras nras pateii magno sigillo nro Angl sigillat', 
geren dat' vicesimo Pcio die Junii, Anno regni nri ?cio, p 
expiracoem sursumreddicoem, forisfciir seu de^minacoem 
inde aut alio modo quocunq^ primo et px' vacari, finiri seu 
de^minari contigit et <p annual reddit' quadraginta solidoi^. 
Et postea cuidam Anne Twiste ufi Thome Twiste p alias 
Iras nras paten magno sigillo nro Angl sigillat' geren dat' 



364 FEANCIS BACON. 

App. vicesimo quinto die Maii, Anno regni nri vicesimo nono «p 
V. 3. ftnino viginti et unius annoi^ incipiend a festo Ahunciacois 
fee Marie Yirginis, quod erit in Anno Drii Miltimo sexcen- 
tesimo ?cio et <p aiiuial reddit' qnadraginta solidoi^ (in? alia) 
dimiss' et concess', ac totum illud clans' sive pastur voeat 
Leafeilde grove, contifi p estimacoein qnatnor acras cnidam 
Edrnnndo Gregorie p Indentur Ambrosii nup Comitis 
Warr, gerefi dat' octavo die Junii, Anno regni nri tricesimo 
primo |) ?mino viginti et unius annoi^, incipiend a festo 
Sci Micfris Arcfri adtunc ultimo p^ito, ac de et sub annual 
reddit' sex solidoi^ et octo denarioi^ nup dimiss', Aceciam 
totam illam parcellam prati vocat' the Baylies fee, contifi 
p estimacoem duas acras, in Broadeliall, cuidam Tliome 
Staunton p consimilem Indentur pdci Ambrosii, Comitis 
Warr, gerefi dat' septimo die Julii, Anno regni nri vicesimo 
primo, p ?mino viginti et unius annor^ incipiend a die dat' 
diet' Indentur ptfato Thome Staunton, ut pfert 1 confect', 
ac de et sub annual reddit' Sex solido:^ et octo denarioi}, 
nup dimiss'. Necnon omes illas sepales Iras et pastur 
existen parcell parci de Wedgenock, contifi p estimacoem 
decern acras cuidam Robto Sheldon p consimil Indentur 
pdict' Comitis, gerefi dat' primo die Octobris, Anno regni 
nri vicesimo septimo, p fmino viginti et unius annor^, inci- 
piend a die dat' diet' Indentur p%to Konto Sheldon, ut 
ptfert 1 ' confect', ac de et sub annual reddit' triginta solidoi^ 
simili? nup dimiss'. Quequidem pmissa jpfat' Edmundo 
Gregorie, Thome Staunton et Kobto Sheldon, ut pfert r 
dimiss', sunt parcell Maner nri de Warr, in Coin nro Warr, 
ac sunt parcell t^raip et possession^ in manibj; nris existeri 
rone mortis jMict' Ambrosii, nup Comitis Warr, defuncti, 
sine hered mascul de corpore suo ttime |)creat', Necnon 
ppfato Thome Staunton p Iras nras paten, gerefi dat' duo- 
decimo die Februarii, Anno regni nri tricesimo ?cio, inci- 



GRANTS FROM THE CROWN. 365 

pienda confeceoe deal}, lra^ paten p et durafi resid sepal App. 
terminoi^ annoip supius in pdict' sepalib3 Indenturis pdict' V. 3. 
nup Comitis Warr sprfrcat', et p pdictis sepal annnat 
reddit' in eisdem mencionat', dimiss' et concess' fuerunt. 
necnon totuni illud ten nrm et duas bovat' Pre cum eoi^ 
ptih uni^sis quondam in tenura sive occupacoe Jo!iis Mar- 
shaft vel assign suoi^, scituat', jacefi et existefi in Hessey in 
Com nro Ebo^. vel infra Com Civitatis Ebo^, sen eo^ 
aliquo annual reddit' octodecim solido]^, ac totum illud 
alfum ten nrm et duas bovat' Pre cum eoXf ptifi ibidem, 
quondam in tenura sive occupacoe Kobti Tarte alias Tatte 
vel assign suoi^ annual reddit' septemdecem solid oi} et octo 
denario^ ac totum illud ten. et duas bovat' Pre cum eo^ 
ptifi ibidem modo vel nup in tenur sive occupacoe Thome 
Hedley vel assign suoi^, annual reddit' sexdecim solidoiy. 
Que omia pmissa in Hessey fMict' sunt parceft Maner nri 
de Poppleton, in pYlco Com nro Ebor^ ac nup Monaster fee 
Marie, juxta mur Civitat' Eboi},, quondam spectafi et 
ptinefi, ac parcel! possession^ inde quondam existefi, ac 
cuidam Georgio Tirell p Iras nras patefi magno sigillo nro 
Angl sigillat', geren dat' apud Westm, decimo sexto die 
Aprilis, Anno regni nri undecimo, p Pmino triginta et 
unius annoi},, incipiend a tempore quo quedam Ire patefi 
et dimissio inde p Iras paten Dni Pfei et pcarissime sororis 
nre Marie, nup Eegis et Eegine Anglie, sub magno sigillo 
suo Angl confect', geren da? apud Ashur, vicesimo scdo 
die Aprilis, Annis regnoi^ suoi^. primo et scdo, cuidam 
Eado Hall concess' p expiracoem, sursum reddicoem, 
forisfcur, aut alio quocunq^ modo primum et px' vacari, 
finiri seu determinari conti&it, et p annual reddit' quin- 
quaginta unius solidoi^ et octo denarioi^ dimiss' et concess' 
fuerunt, ac omia et singula domos, edificia, structur, hor- 
rea, stabul, columbar, hort', pomar, gardifi, terr, ten, prat,' 



366 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. pasc', pastur, lezur, bruer, moras, marisc, coias sect' ad 
V. 3. molendiii, tolnet, tkeolon, mulctur, aquas, aqua^, cursus, 
gurgit', ripas, stagna, vivar, piscar, piscacoes pfic como- 
ditat', advantag', emolumenta, et hereditamenta nra que- 
cunqj pmiss' p pteentes dimiss' seu alicui eo^dem parcel! 
ullo modo spectafi vel ptinefi, aut cum eisdem seu eo^ 
aliquo vel aliquib3 antehae usuali? <p sepal aunual reddit' 
infeus in hiis p ) sentib5 Iris mis paten reservat', dimiss', 
locat', usitat, occupat', reputat' seu gavis' existen. Ex- 
ceptis tamen semp et nob, heredib3 et successorib3 nris 
omino reservat', omib3 grossis, arborib3, boscis, subboscis, 
miner et quarreis oinium et singulor^ pmisso:^ p%fcis 
Francisco Bacon et Joni Hibberd p psentes pconcess', 
pr? virgult' parcel! Maner de Glaston supius p psentes 
dimiss'. Hend et tenend totum pdict' pare de Istleworth 
alias diet' the newe parke of Eichmond, r/ras, prat', pasc', 
pastur, domos, logeas, ac cePa omia et singula pmissa ptfato 
Miloni Doddinge p Iras paten supius annotat', ut pfert 1 ' 
dimiss' cum eo^ jurib3 membris et ptifi uni9sis (except' 
pexcept') p%to Francisco Bacon, executorib3 et assign 
suis a Festo Sci MicKis Arcnl quod erit in Anno Drii 
Mirlimo sexcentesimo vicesimo quarto, us% ad finem Pmini 
et p £minii viginti et unius annor^ extunc |)x' sequefi et 
plena? complend ; Keddendo inde extunc et abinde annua- 
tim nob, heredib3 et successor^ nris, octo libras et duos 
solidos leg monete Anglie ad festa Afiunciacois be Marie 
Virginis et Sci Micfiis ArcM ad Recept' Sc a cii nri, here- 
dum et sucessoif nro:^, seu ad manus Ballivo^ vel Recepto^ 
pmissoi** p tempore existen p equales porcoes solvend 
duraii ?mino fMco inde p pteentes pPconcess', Ac Hend et 
tenend oines, pdcas quinquaginta et septem acras et decern 
pticat' ten* arrabil et pastur sive plus sive minus, cum eo^ 
ptia univsis sepatim jaceii et existen in Whaplodd pdict' in 



GRANTS FROM THE CROWN. 3G7 

fMict' Coin nro Lincoln, ac ce£a omia et singula p>missa Arr. 
parcel! Maffii de Whaplodd p>dict, p>fato Thome Middle- V. 3. 
cote p Iras patefi supius annotat' nt pfet 1- dimiss', ac fMca 
duo claus' prati et pastur, ac pPdict virgulF, cotag, curtilag, 
terr arrabil, prat', et pastur, ac ce?a omia et singula pmissa 
parcel! Maner de Glaston fMict in Glaston pdict', in pdco 
Com nro Sorfrs, cum eoi^ ptifi uni?sis (except' p>except') 
pfato Jolii Hibberd, executor^ et assign suis, a festo 
Anunciacois be Marie Virginis quod erit in Anno Dni 
Miitimo Sexcentesimo undecimo, usq^ ad finem ftnini et p 
Pminu viginti et unius annoi^ extunc ^x' sequeri et plenar 
complend, Reddendo extunc et abinde annuatim nob, here- 
dib3 et successor^ nris, de et p pmissis in Whaplodd 
Indict' in tenura jMci Thome Middlecote ut p>fert r existen, 
quatuor libras et tres solidos ; ac de et <p pmissis in 
Whaplodd pdict' in sepal tenur Thome Dawson, Johis 
Dawson et Willi Skarlett ut pfert 1 existen, triginta duos 
solidos et octo denarios ; ac de et p pmissis parcel!: Maner 
de Glaston pdict' in tenura dci Johis Howchins ut ptfert 1 " 
existen, octo solidos ; ac de et <p pmissis parcel! ejusdem 
Maii'ii in tenura dci Johis Payne ut pfert 1 ' existen, duos 
solidos ; ac de et <p jxmissis parcel! pdict' Maner de Glaston 
in tenura dci Rici Sargant ut pfert r existen, tres solidos 
et quatuor denarios ; ac de et <p pPmissis parcell ejusdem 
Maner in tenura dci Lawrencii Dovell ut pfert 1 ' existen, 
duos solidos ; Necnon de et <p ^missis parcel! diet' Maner 
de Glaston in tenura dci Mathei Marten ut pfert 1 ' existen, 
duos solidos legalis monete Augl acl fest' Sci Michis Archi 
et Anunciacois be Marie Virginis ad Recept' Sc a cii nri 
hered et successor^ nro^, seu ad manus Balliyoi^ vel Re- 
ceptor^ pmissoi}, p tempore existen p equales porcoes 
solvend durafi tniino fMco incle p psentes pconcess'. Ac 
Hend et tenend p^lict' Scit J Maner de Roxham, domos, 



368 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. edificia, horrea, stabuf, columbar et gardifi eidem spectafi 
y, 3, cum suis ptifi, toft', croft', terr, prat', pase, pastur, ac ce?a 
omia £ singula pinissa parcelr Maner de Ruslungton pdict' 
in jMict' Com nro Lincoln, p psentes dimiss, cum eo^ ptifi 
uni?sis (except' pexcept') fPfat' Jolii Hibberd, executorib3 
et assign suis, a festo Anunciacois Be Marie Virginis quod 
erit in Anno Dni Millimo Sexcentesimo duodecimo usq, 
ad finem ?mini et p ?minu viginti et unius anno:^ extunc 
,px' sequefi et plenar complend : Keddendo inde extunc et 
abinde annuatim nofc, heredib3 et successorib3 nris quadra- 
ginta novem solidos et sex denarios legalis monete Angt 
ad festa Sci Micliis ArcKi et Anunciacois Be Marie Virginis 
ad Recept' S ccii nri, lieredum et successor nroi^., seu ad 
manus Ballivo^ vel Eecepto]^ pmisso^ ^ tempore existen 
p equales porcoes solvend durafi Pmino pPdco inde p psentes 
pconcess'. Ac liend et tenend pdict' ten ac omes pPdict' 
tras eidem ten spectafi, cum ptifi, ac totum pPdict' claus' 
cum suis ptiil ac ce£a pmissa in Stukeley pdict' in jpdict 
Com nro Hunt', p>fato Lawrencio Torkington p Iras paten 
supius annotat' ut ptfert 1- dimiss' (except' pexcept') pPfato 
Joni Hibberd, executorib^ et assign suis a festo Anuncia- 
cois fte Marie Virginis quod erit in Anno Dni Miffimo sex- 
centesimo septimo usq^ ad finem £mini et p ?minu viginti 
et unius annoi^ extunc |>x' sequeil et plenar complend : 
Reddendo inde, extunc et abinde annuatim nofc, heredib3 
et succ nris quinquaginta solidos legalis monete Anglie ad 
festa Sci Micriis Arcfii, et Anunciacois be Marie Virginis 
ad Recept' Sc 5 cii nri, lieredum et successor nro^, seu ad 
manus Ballivo^ vel Receptor pPmissox^ q tempore existen 
p equales porcoes solvend duraii fmino pdco inde p pteentes 
pteoncess'. Ac liend et tenend pdict' molendinu aquaticu 
vocat' Farneham Myll cum ptifi, scituat', jacen et existeii 
apud Farneham Royall pdict' in p>dict' Coin nro Buclf, ac 



GRANTS FROM THE CROWN. 369 

pdict' duo claus' jacefi et existen in Farneham Eoyall App. 
pdict' vocat' the great Bownes and the little Bownes et V. 3. 
omes jMict' £ras arrabit et prat' eidem Molendino aliquo 
modo spectafi vel ptinefi ac ce£a omia et singula pmissa 
parcett Maner de Farneham Eoyall pVlict' cum eoi^ ptin 
uni^sis (except' pexcept') pfato Jolii Hibberd, executor^ 
et assign suis, a festo Afiuneiacois be Marie Virginis quod 
erit in Anno Dni Mittimo, sexcentesimo, vicesimo quarto 
usq^ ad finem fmini et p t/minu viginti et unius anno^ 
extunc px' sequen et plenar complend : Keddendo inde, 
extunc et abinde annuatim nob, heredib3 et successorib3 
nris, quadraginta solidos legalis monete Angt, ad festa Sci 
Micnis ArcKi et Anunciacois be Marie Virginis, ad Eecept' 
Sc 5 cii nri. hered et successor nroi^. seu ad manus Ballivoi^ 
vel Eecepto^, pmissoi^ p tempore existen p equales porcoes 
solvend durafi ?mino pdco inde p pPsentes pteoncess'. Ac 
hend et tenend fPdict' claus' sive pastur vocat Leafeilde 
grove, continefi p estimacoem quatuor acras pPfato Ed- 
mundo Gregorie p Indentur pdict' supius mencionat' nup 
dimiss' ; aceciam pdict' parcett prat? vocat' the Baylies 
Fee, continefi p estimacoem duas acras in Broadehall pfato 
Thome Staunton p Indentur p>dict' supius mencionat' nup 
dimiss ; Necnon omes pdcas sepales Pras et pastur existen 
parcett parci de Wedgnocke pdict' continefi p estimacoem 
decern acras pfat' Eobto Sheldon p Indentur pdict supius 
mencionat' nup dimiss, ac ce£a omia et singula pmissa 
parcett Maner de Warr jMict' in pdco Com nro Warr, cum 
eo^ ptin uni^sis (except' ^except') pfato Johi Hibberd 
executorib3 et assign suis, a tempore quo pdce Ire paten 
et dimissio itt supius annotat' ptfat' Thome Staunton inde 
ut pfert 1 ' confect' et fnriri annoi^ in iisdem expss' et men- 
cionat' p expiracoem, sursumreddicoem, forisfcur seu de- 
r^minacoem inde aut alio modo quocun% primo et px' 

2 B 



370 FKANCIS BACON. 

App. vacari, finiri seu de£minari contigit, us% ad finem ?mini et 
Y. 3. p ?minu viginti et unius anno]}, extunc <px' sequefi et plenar 
complend: Keddendo extunc et abinde annuatim nob' 
heredib3 et successorib3 nris de et <p pdict' claus' sive 
pastur vocat' Leafeilde grove, cum ptifi, sex solidos et octo 
denarios ; ac de et |) pdict' parcell prat vocat tlie Baylies 
Fee, cum ptifi, decern solid ; Necnon de et ,p pdict' sepal 
terr et pastur parcell parci de Wedgnocke, cum ptifi, tri- 
ginta solidos legalis monete Angl ad Festa Sci Micliis 
Arclii et Afiunciacois be Marie Virginis, ad Recept' Sc 5 cii 
nri, heredum et successor^ nT-or^ seu ad manus Ballivoi^ vel 
Receptor jpmissoi^ ^ tempore existen p equales porcoes sol- 
vend durafi ?mino |Mco inde p psentes pconcess' : Prima 
soluc inde incipiend ad illud festum festoi^ pdcoi^ quod prim 
et <px' evenJit aut acciderit postq^m eadem p>niissa parcell 
Maner de Warr pdict', ad manus et possess' p>dci Jobis Hib- 
berd executory vel assign suo^ virtute ha^ lrai^ nraip paten 
devenlint seu devenire debent. Necnon liend et tenend jMict' 
ten et duas bovat' tre cum ptifi modo vel nup in tenura pdci 
JoHis Marsball vel assign suoi^ ut ptfert 1 " existen ; ac pdcm 
alburn ten et duas bovat' terr cum ptifi, modo vel nup in 
tenura Robti Tarte alias Tatte vel assign suo^ ut p>fert r 
existen ; necnon pdict' alftim ten et duas bovat' ?re cum 
ptiii univsis, modo vel nup in tenura Thome Hedley vel 
assign suoi^ ut ptfert r existen, ac ce?a omia et singula 
pmissa parcell Maner de Poppleton pdict', cum eoi^. ptiii 
uni9sis (except' ^except') plfato Jofii Hibberd executory 
et assign suis, a fine expirac, sursum reddicoe, forisfcur seu 
defrninacoe pdict' ftnin anno^ mencionat' et expss' in 
jMcis Iris paten supius annotat' pfato Georgio Tirrell inde 
in? alia ut pfetf confect' usq^ ad finem r?mini et p £ininu 
viginti et unius annoi^ extunc px' sequefi et plenar com- 
plend: Reddendo inde extunc et abinde annuatim nob, 



GRANTS FROM THE CROWN. 371 

heredib3 et successor^ nris de et <p ^missis cuni ptiri in Apr. 
tenura Jofris Marshall ut pfert 1 " existen, octodecim solidos ; V. a 
ac de et £ pmissis cum ptifi in tenura Rofrti Tarte alias 
Tate ut pfet r existen septemdecim solidos et octo dena- 
rios ; Necnon de et g pmissis cum ptin in tenura Thome 
Hedley ut ptfert 1 " existen, sexdecim solidos legalis monete 
Angl, ad Festa Sci Micfris Archi et Anunciacois "be Marie 
Virginis ad Recept' Sc^cii nri, heredum et successor nroi^ 
seu ad manus Ballivo^ vel Receptor ^missor^ ,p tempore 
existen p equales porcoes solvend duran ?mino jpdco inde 
p pPsentes pconcess' : Prima solucoe inde incipiend ad illud 
festum festoi^ pdcoi^ quod prim et ,px' evefiit aut acciclit 
postq a m eadem pmissa parcell Maner de Poppleton fMict' 
ad manus et possessionem p>dci Johis Hibberd executo^ 
vel assignatoi}, suor^ virtute hai^ Iraq, nikr^ paten devefflnt 
seu devenire debent. Et pdict' Franciscus Bacon, exe- 
cutores et assign sui nos heredes et successores nros, de 
Quatuor libris et decern solidos £ feod custod parci jMci 
solvend annuatim et de tempore in tempus exoffiabunt, 
acquiet' et indempnes conservabunt duraii ?mino jMict'. 
Qdqj pdict' Franciscus Bacon et Johes Hibberd exec et 
assign sui respective oinia domos et edificia, ac omia sepes, 
fossat', inetur, littora, ripas, et muros marittimos, necnon 
omes alias necessar reparacoes pmissoi^ eis sepatim dimiss' 
in 0111103 et p oinia de tempore in tempus tociens quociens 
necesse et oportunu fuerit sumptib3 suis cppriis et expensis 
bene et sufficient repabunt, supportabunt, sustinebunt, 
escurabunt, purgabunt et manutenebunt duraii ?mino jMco, 
ac pmissa sufficient reparat' et manutent' in fine frnini 
pdict' dimittent. Et volum 9 ac p pteentes <p noft, heredib3 
et successorib3 nris concedim 9 pfat' Francisco Bacon et 
Jofri Hibberd, executory et assign suis, qd bene licebit 
eis et eo^ cuilt de tempore in tempus cape pcipe et here 

2 b 2 



372 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. de, in et sup pinissa eis sepalit 9 dimiss' crescefi, competen 
V. 3. et sufficiefi housebote, hedgebote, firebote, plougbebote, et 
cartebote ibidem et non alibi annuatim expendend et occu- 
pand duraii £mino p>dco ; Et qd freant niaerem in boscis et 
Pris pmisso^, crescefi ad et vsus reparac domo^ et edificioi^ 
pmissoi^ p assignacoem et supvis' Seneschall seu Sub- 
seneschalt aut alioi^ Officiarioi^ nroi^, heredum et successor 
nroi^ ibidem p tempore existen duraii £mino pdict'. Pro- 
viso semp qd si conti§it pdict 5 sepal reddit supius p 
jpsentes reservat' aut eor, aliquem aretro fore non solu? in 
parte vel in toto p spaciu quadraginta die^ post aliquod 
Festum festoi^ jMcoi}, quo ut p>fert r solvi debeat, Qd tunc 
et deinceps bee pteens dimissio et concessio quoad illam 
partem et pceft pmissoi^ tantumodo unde sepal reddit' 
.pinde supius p pteentes reservat', sic aretro fuer insolut' p 
spaciu dcoi^, quadraginta die^ vacua sit ac <p null neat r ; 
Aliquo in p ) sentib3 in contr E iu inde non obstaii. Proviso 
eciam ul?ius qd si p>dict' Joftes Hibberd, executores vel 
assign sui sufficiefi. sepal dimissiones in scriptis sub sigillo 
suo conficiend cuilt sepal tenen sive occupator pmissoi^ vel 
alicujus inde parcel! eis p psentes pdimiss' de sepal parcell 
eo^dem pmissoi^ £ toto et integro fmino annoi^ p pteentes 
pconcess et p sepal annual reddit' supius p psentes <p 
eisdem reservat' infra spaciu unius anni gx sequen post 
dat' bai^ lrai^ nrai^ paten non fe8int nee fieri causarint 
diimodo iidem tenefi sive occupatores eo^dem pmisso^ et 
eo^ quilt respective sol?int seu solvi feSint eidem JoM 
Hibberd, executory vel assign suis, infra dem spaciu 
unius anni ,px' sequeii post dat' har^ lrai^ nrai^ paten oines 
tales pecuniae sumas quales et quant' |)inde cum jMco Johe 
Hibberd, executor^ vel assign suis sol9e convenlint vel 
conveflit, aut omes tales et hujusmodi pecuniae sumas qual 
et quant' j)inde solvi p Thesaurar Anglie et Cancellar Cur 



GRANTS FROM THE CROWN. 373 

Sc Q cii <p tempore existen sub manib3 eoi^ seu eo^ altius in App. 
script' erunt sepalft? limitat' et appunctuat' erit, Quod tunc V. 3. 
et deinceps hec pteens dimissio et concessio quoad illam 
partem et parcel!: pmisso^ tantumodo unde tenens sive 
occupator non po?it here ftmoi sufficefi dimiss in script', p 
vel sup solucoe p eadem modo et forma p>dict' scdm veram 
intencoem ha^ lrai^ nrai^ paten vacua sit ac nullius vigoris 
in lege : Aliquo in pteentibsf in conform inde non obstan. 
Aliquo statuto, etc. In cujus rei, etc. T' fy, apud Westm, 
xvij die Novembr. 

p fere de privato sigillo, etc. 



Patent Eoll, 40 Elizabeth, Part 3, Memb. 26. V. 4. 



. on firm g 
co Bacon, 



Begin a Omib3 ad quos etc sattm 
Cum in Iris nris patent^ magno 
Sigillo nro Anglie sigillat gerefi dat 
apud Westm quintodecimo die Feb- 
ruarij Anno regni nri tricesimo quarto continet r qd t a dide- 
rim 9 concesserim 9 et ad firmam dimiserim 9 ditco nob 
Bobto Stephens totam illam Kcoriam et Eccliam de Ches- 
tleham cum suis jurib3 membris et ptin uni9sis in Com 
nro Glouc Ac totam illam Capellam de Charleton cum suis 
jurib3 membris et ptih univsis in eodem Com dee Kcorie 
de Cheltenham annex existen Ac omia et singula scit 
mesuagia grangia domos edificia structur horrea stabula 
columbaria hort pomaria gardina ?ras tenta prata pascua 
pastur Coias piscarias piscacoes opa tenen reddit et 3vicia 
tarn liBor^, q a m Custumarioi^ tenentiu redditus et Svicia 
reservat sup quibuscumq^ Dimissionib3 et Concessionib3 
de ^missis eschaet relevia mortuaria herriet fines amcia- 
menta Cur let vis Franc pleg Cur et let pquisit et pficua 
eo^ Necnon totum ill staur nrm tarn vivu q%i mortuu 



374 FRANCIS BACON. 

A pp. videit a viol*? bon et catall et gran Ac omes illas decimas 
V. 4. g a nor f blad feni lane agnoi^ vituloip et aliai", decima^ tam 
major q a m minor oblacoes obvencoes fructus pficua como- 
ditates advantagia emolumenta et hereditamenta nra que- 
cumc^ cum ptiil tam spualia q a in temporalia cujuscuno^ sint 
genlis nature seu speciei scituat jaceii et existen pvenien 
crescen sive erfigeii infra villas campos paroehias sive ham- 
lett de Cheltenham et Charleton ^dict vel eo^ aliquo seu 
alibi in dco Com nro Glouc dee Ecorie et Ecclie de Chel- 
tenham Capelle de Charleton p>dict scit mesuag ten* tentis 
decimis et cefrs pmissis seu eoi*, alicui vel aliquib3 ullo 
modo spectan vel ptineii aut cum eisdem seu eo^ aliquo 
vel aliquib3 ut pars membrum vel parcel! eoi^dem sive eo^ 
alicujus antetunc dimiss locat vsitat occupat reputat seu 
gavis existen cum eoXf ptin uni^sis quondam existen parcel!" 
terr tentoi^ et possession^ nup monaster de Cirencester in 
Com pdict Except tamen semp et nob heredib3 et succes- 
sorib3 nris oihino reservat omib3 grossis arborib3 maerem 
existen boscis subboscis Ward maritag miner et quarr ac 
bonis et catallis felonu fugitivoi"* et felonu de se et in 
exigend posit condempnat et utlagat Ac Advocac6ib3 Ec- 
criarf et Capella^ qua^cumq^ Kcorie pdict vel cetis p'missis 
appenden spectan vel ptinen hendum et tenendum ^dcam 
Kcoriam Eccliam Capellam scit terr glebas decimas ac 
ce?a omia et singula pmissa cum eo^ jurib3 membr et 
ptiii univsis (except pexcept) pfat Kobto Stephens et 
assign suis a Festo sci Micftis Archi tunc ultimo pPtito usq^ 
ad finem ftnini et ,p £mino viginti et unius Annor^, extunc 
px sequen et plenarie complendoi"? Reddendo inde an- 
nuatim nofc heredib3 et successorib3 nris septuaginta quinq^ 
libras tresdecim solidos et quatuo r denarios legalis monete 
Anglie ad Festa Annunciacois be marie virginis et sci 
micfris Archi ad Eeceptam Sc a cij nri heredum et successor^, 



GRANTS FEOM THE CROWN. 375 

nroi^ seu ad maims Ballivoi^ vel Beceptoi^ pmissoi^ p tern- App. 
pore existen p equales porcoes solvend duran frnino p>dco Y. 4. 
£iit p pdcas iras patentes plenius liquet et apparet Cum% 
eciam in Iris nris patent^ magno Sigillo nro Anglie 
sigillat geren dat apud Westm decimo die maij Anno regni 
nri tricesimo £cio continet r qd t a diderim 9 concesserim 9 et 
ad firmam dimisserim 9 difco nob Wiffo Greenewell totam 
illam pdcam Kcoriam et Ecctiam nram de Cheltenham 
cum suis jurib3 naembris et ptiri univ'sis in dco Com nro 
Glouc Ac totam illam jMcam Capellam nram de Charleton 
cum suis jurib3 et ptin in eodem Com nro Glouc dee 
Kcorie de Cheltenham annex existen ac ornia et singula 
pPdict scit mesuagia grangia domus edificia structur horrea 
stabula Columbaria hortos pomaria- gardina £ras tenta 
prata pascua pastur Coias aceciam aquas ac pdict pisca- 
rias piscacoes opa tenenciu reddit et §vicia tarn liboi^ q u m 
Custumarioi^ tenenciu redditus et 3vicia reservat sup qui- 
buscumo^ dimissionib3 et Concession^ de pmissis seu de 
aliqua inde parcella fact escaet relevia mortuaria herriet 
fines arrrciainenta Cur let vis Franc pleg Cur et let pqui- 
sicoes et pficua eoi^dem Necnon tot ill: staur nrm tarn vivu 
q a m mortuu videlt a^ioi^ boil catatt et grail ac oines illas 
decimas nras g^noi^, bladoi^ feni lane agno^ vituloi^ ac alias 
decimas nras tarn majores q a m minores oblacoes obvencoes 
fructus cpficua comoditates advantagia emolumenta et here- 
ditamenta nra quecunq^ cum ptin tarn spualia q a m tempo- 
ralia cujuscumq^ sint geffis nature vel speciei scituat jaceii 
et existeii pvenien crescen sive errrgeil infra villas campos 
paroch sive hamlett de Cheltenham et Charleton pdict seu 
in vel infra eo^ aliquem vel aliquos seu alibi ubicumq^ in 
dco Com nro Glouc jpdee Ecorie et Ecclie de Cheltenham 
Capelle de Charleton pdict scit mesuag terr ten decim et 
ce£is pmissis seu eoiq. alicui vel aliquib3 ullo modo spectaii 



376 FRANCIS BACON. 

Apr. vel ptinen aut ut membr part vel parcel! eai^dem Rcoriai^ 
v- 4. e t Ecctie Capelr scit mesuag terr ten decim ac ee^o^ 
pmisso^ seu eoXf aliquoi^ vel alicujus antetunc Hit cognit 
accept vsitat occupat seu reputat existen nup monaster de 
Cirencestr in dco Corn modo dissolut quondam spectan et 
ptinen ac parceli terr et possessionii inde quondam existen 
Exceptis tamen semp et nob heredib3 et successorib3 nris 
ornino reservat omib3 grossis arborib3 maereni existen 
boscis subboscis Wardis maritagiis miner et quarr ac bonis 
et catallis felonu. fugitivoxj, et felonii de se et in exigend 
posit condempnat et utlagat Ac advocacoib3 Eccliar^ et 
Capella]}. qua^,cum% Rcorie p>dce vel ce&s pmissis appen- 
deri spectan vel ptinen nenduin et tenend pdict Rector 
terr glebales decimas ac cef?a orriia et singula pmissa cum 
eoXf jm-ib3 membris et ptin uni9sis (except p>exceptis) 
pfato Willo Greenewell executorib3 et assign suis a Festo 
Annunciacois be marie virginis tunc ultimo p^ito us% ad 
finem ?mini et p r?minu viginti et unius Annoi^ extunc <px 
sequen et plenar complend Keddendo inde annuatim nob 
heredib3 et successor^ nris septuaginta quin% libras 
tresdecem solidos et quatuor denarios legalis monete 
Anglie ad Festa sci micbis Arcfii et Annunciacois be 
marie virginis ad Receptam Scc a ii nri beredum et Suc- 
cessor nroi^ seu ad manus Ballivoi^ vel Receptor pmisso^ 
p tempore existen p equales porcoes solvend duran fmino 
jMco <put p easdem Iras patentes plenius eciam liquet et 
apparet Cunio^ eciam in Iris nris patentib3 magno Sigillo 
nro Anglie sigillat geren dat apud Westin vicesimo scdo 
die Maii Anno regni nri scdo continet 1 " qd t a diderim 9 con- 
cesserim 9 ac ad firniam dimiserim 9 dilco nob Henr. Jer- 
ningbam militi scitum dee Rcorie de Cbeltenb^m in dco 
Coin nro Glouc ac jMcarn Capellam de Charleton in eodem 
Com eidem Rcorie anexat Ac omia domos terr prat pascua 



GRANTS FROM THE CROWN. 377 

pastur gardina redditus et §vicia tarn libor, q a m Custu- App. 
mario^, tenefi ad Rcoriam sive Capellam ptiuen seu cum V. 4. 
eisdem aut aliqua inde parcella antetunc dimiss locat 
occupat recept seu fiit Necnon vis Franc pleg Cur let fines 
heriet mortuaria et relevia ac omia alia pficua quecumq^ 
eisdem vis franc pleg et Cur ptinen Aceciam omes decimas 
bladoi^ feni lane agnoi^ vitulo^ et alias decimas quascum% 
tarn majores q a m minores oblacoes et omia alia res pficua 
et coinoditates dee Rcorie et Capelle seu eoi^ al?i spectan 
ptinefi sive incumben Exceptis tamen semp et nob hered 
et successorib3 nris omino reservat omib3 et omimodis 
grossis arborib3 boscis subboscis Wardis maritagiis miner 
et quarr ac bonis et catallis felonu fugitivoip felonu de se et 
in exigend posit condempfi et utlagat Ac advocac6ib3 
Ecclia:^ et Capella^ qua^cunq^ Rcorie et capelle pdict 
spectan ptinen acciden sive erfigen nendum et tenend 
pVlict scit Rcor et Capellam necnon pdict domos terr prat 
ten pasc et pastur gardifi reddit et Svicia unacum vis franc 
pleg Cur let finib3 herriet mortuarijs et relevijs et omib3 
alijs pficuis pdcis de eisdem Cur pvenien simul cum deci- 
mis oblacoib3 obvencoib3 et alijs reb3 ^ficuis et coinodi- 
tatib3 quibuscunq^ dee Rcorie et Capelle et eoi^ utri% 
ptinen spectan sive incumben aut cum eisdem seu eo^ 
aliqua pantea dimiss locat occupat recept sive fiit cum 
suis ptiri (except ^except) pfat Henr Jernyngham execu- 
torib3 et assign suis a Festo sci micliis Arcfii tunc ultimo 
p€ito usqj ad finem ?mini et p ?minu sexaginta Annor^, 
extunc cpx' sequefi et plenarie complendoi^ Reddendo inde 
annuatim nob heredib3 et successor^ nris sexaginta libras 
et octo denarios legalis monete Anglie ad Festa Anun- 
eiacois be marie virginis et sci micliis ArcHi ad Receptam 
Scc a ij nri seu ad manus Ballivo^ vel Receptor pmissoi^ <p 
tempore existeri p equales porcoes solvend duran dco 



378 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. Pinino sexaginta Anno^ Sciatis qd nos tarn in consideracoe 
V. 4. boni fidelis et acceptabilis sVicij nob p ditcni et fidelem 
nob Franciscum Bacon Arnrighim antebac fact et impens 
q a m p difsis alijs cansis et considerac6ib3 nos ad boc 
spiali? moveii de gra nra spiali ac ex ©ta scientia et mero 
motu nris t a didim 9 concession 9 et ad firmam dhnisim 9 ac 
p psentes p nob beredib3 et successor^ nris t a dim? con- 
ceding et ad firmam dimittim 9 pfat Francisco Bacon 
totam illam Ecoriam et Eccliam nram de Cbeltenham cum 
suis jurib3 membris et ptin uni?sis in dco Com nro Glouc 
ac pdcam Capellam de Cbarleton in eodem Com eidem 
Ecorie annexat Ac omia domos ?ras prata pascua pastur 
gardina redditus et Svicia tarn liboi^ q a m Custnmarioi^ 
tenenciu ad dcam Ecoriam sive Capellam ptinen seu cum 
eisdem ant aliqua inde parcella antetunc dimiss locat 
occupat recept seu bit Necnon vis franc pleg Cur let fines 
berriet mortuaria et relevia ac omia alia ^ficua quecumq^ 
eisdem vis franc pleg et Cur ptinen Aceciam omes decimas 
bladoif feni lane agnoi^ vituloi^. ac alias decimas quascumqj 
tarn majores q a m minores oblacoes obvenc et omia alia 
pficua et comoditates dee Ecorie et Capelle seu eo^ al?i 
spectaii ptinen sive incumbeii Exceptis tamen semp et nob 
beredib3 et successor^ nris omino reservat omib3 et orrii- 
modis grossis arborib3 boscis subboscis Wardis maritagijs 
miner et quarr ac bonis et catallis felonu fugitivoi^ felonu 
de se et in exigend posit condempnat et utlagat Ac Advo- 
cacoib3 Ecctia^> et Capella^ quai^cuno^ Ecorie et Capelle 
pPdict spectaii ptinen accideii sive erflgen bendum et tenend 
pdcam Ecoriam et Capellam scit terr gleb decimas ac 
ceter omia et singula jPraissa p pteentes dimissa et concessa 
cum eoi^ jurib3 membris et ptifi uni^sis except ^except 
pfat Francisco Bacon executory et assign suis a Festo 
sci Micbis Arcbi quod erat in Anno Dm mittimo quingen- 



GRANTS FROM THE CROWN. 379 

tesimo nonagesimo septimo us% ad finem Tiffini et p frnino App. 
Quadraginta Annoi^ extunc px sequen et plenar complend V. 4. 
Si omes jMce sepales Ire patentes Concessiones ac Dimis- 
siones confect et frit p>fat Eobto Stephens Wifto*Greene- 
well ac Henr Jerningliam militi de jMca Eeoria et Ecclia 
de Cheltenliam ac de Capella de Charleton ac de omib3 et 
singulis Scit domib3 gardinis £ris pratis pastur Coijs red- 
ditib3 et 'svicijs Cur et omib3 et singulis alijs pdcis reb3 
pficuis coinoditatib3 tentis hereditaments quibuscunq^ 
cum omib3 et singulis suis ptirl in dcis sepalib3 iris nris 
patentib3 mencionat et expss fore dimiss et concess 
vacue irrite et nullius vigoris sive valoris in lege existunt 
Et in casu qd p»dce nre sepales Ire patentes Concessiones 
ac Dimissiones vel eoi^ alique vel aliqua confect et Hit 
pfat EoBto Stephens Wiflo Greenewell ac henr Jerning- 
ham militi de pdict Eeoria et Ecclia de Cheltenham jMict 
ac de Capella de Charlton ac de oihib3 scit terr decimis 
tentis et hereditamentis quibuscuno^ et cefts omib3 et sin- 
gulis pPmissis cum suis ptin in dcis sepalib3 Iris nris 
patentib3 mencionat et exp>ss fore dimiss et concess 
bone et valide vel bona et valida in lege existunt vel 
existit Tunc frenduin et tenendum pdcam Ecoriam et 
Capellam scit terr glebas decimas ac ce£a oniia et singula 
pmissa p pteeh dimissa et concessa cum eoi^ jurib3 membr 
et ptin uni?sis (exceptis ^except) plfat Francisco Bacon 
executorib3 et assign suis a tempore quo pPdca Eeoria -et 
Capella scit terr decime ten et hereditamenta ac ce?a omia 
et singula pmissa p pteentes dimissa et concessa cum omib3 
et singulis suis ptin ad manus et possessionem nras heredum 
et successor nroi^ rone expiracois sursumreddicois forisfcure 
vel alicujus altius defrninacois dca^ sepaliu dimissionu vel 
concess vel ear? aliquai^ vel alicujus sic existeii bonai^ et 
validai^ vel bone et valide in lege fact ptfat Eoftto Stephens 



380 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. Witto Greenewell ac henr Jerningham devenire poter aut 
V. 4. debent ad finem fiiiini et p tjnino Quadraginta Annoi^. 
extunc px sequefi et plena? complend Eeddendo inde ex- 
tunc et tbinde ammatim nob lieredib3 et successorib3 nris 
septuaginta quinc^ libras tresdecim solidos et quatuor de- 
narios legalis monete Anglie ad Festa Anunciacois be 
marie virginis et sci micfiis Arcfri ad Eeceptam Sc a cij nri 
heredum et successor nroi^ seu ad manus Balliyoi^ vel 
Receptor pmisso:^ p tempore existefi. p equales porcoes 
solvend duran fanino p>dco p pteentes pteoncess Prima 
solucoe inde incipiend ad illnd Festum Festoi^ pdcoi^ quod 
primu et px evenlit aut acciderit postq a m pdca Rcoria et 
Capella et ce?a pinissa ad manus et possessionem p>dci 
Francisci Bacon executo:^ vel assign suoi^ virtute liai^ Irai^ 
nrai^ patenciu devefiint seu devenire debent Et pdcus 
Franciscus Bacon executores et assign sui solvent Arcliiano 
Glouc p tempore existefi annualem pcuracoein suam 
duran ftnino jMco Ac invenient annuatim ad onus 
et custag sua ppria duos Capellanos et duos diaconos 
idoneos et discretos p nos heredes et successores nros 
noiand et admittend ad celebrand et Sviend in Ecclia et 
Capeft jMict put ce£i parochiales Capellani et Diaconi 
in eisdem celebrare et Svire consueverunt Ac invenient 
panes et vinii et alias res necessarias p divinis cele- 
bratur necnon ad sacra et sacrental Ecclie parocbial Rcor 
pdict ac in Capella pdca ministrand tam p comunionib* 
q a m aln° put antehac usitat et consuetum fuit necnon 
Funiculos et cordas p campaii dee Ecclie Aceciam stra- 
minacoem p eadem Ecclia de tempore in tempus put opus 
et necesse fflit duran toto £mino p psentes pconcess 
Quod% idem Franciscus Bacon executores et assign sui 
ordinabunt et pvidebunt seu ordinari et pvideri facient qd 
cursus aque ibidem p totum tempus {Mem possit accurrere 



GRANTS FROM THE CROWN. 381 

in et p quemcumq^ locum et quacumq^ partem terr Ecoric A pp. 
pdict quibus ex antiquo accurrere consuevit et cursus V. 4. 
illius aque escurabunt et mundabunt aut escurari et mun- 
dari facient sumptib3 suis <ppriis et expensis duran Pmino 
pdco Ita qd dampnu pjudiciu sive g a vamen nob" heredib3 
et successor^ nris ob defect ^visionis mundacois seu 
escuracois lmjusmodi aliquo modo non eveniat in futur Et 
ultius pdict Franciscus Bacon executores et assign sui 
tarn Cancell Ecctie et Capelle pdict q a m omia domos et 
edificia ac omia sepes fossat inclur littora ripas et muros 
marittimos necnon omes alias necessarias reparacoes 
pmiss in omib3 et p oniia de tempore in tempus tociens 
quociens necesse et oportunu fGit sumptib3 suis ^priis et 
expensis bene et sufficient reparabunt supportabunt susti-- 
nebunt escurabunt purgabunt et manuetenebunt duran 
tmino pdco Ac pmissa sufficient reparata et manutenta in 
fine tmini p>dci dimittent Et volum 9 ac p Rentes <p non 
heredib3 et successorib3 nris concedim 9 pfato Francisco 
Bacon executory et assign suis qd bene licebit eis de 
tempore in tempus cape pcipe et feere de in et sup pPmissis 
crescefi competeri et sufficiefi housebote hedgebote firebote 
plouglibote et Cartebote ibidem et non alibi annuatim 
expendend et occupand duran tmino jMco Et qd fieant 
maerem in boscis et tris pmissoi^ crescen ad et 9sus repa- 
racoes Cancett Ecclie parochialis de Cheltenham pdict ac 
domoi^ et edificioi^, pmissoip p assignacoem et supvisionem 
Senescalli seu Subsenescalli aut alio^, Officiariorf nroi^ 
heredum et successor nror^ ibidem £ tempore existen 
duraii tmino pdco Proviso semp qd si contigit pdcm 
annualem redditum Septuaginta quinq^ librae tresdecim 
solidoi^ et quatuor denario^ supius p psentes reservat 
aretro fore non solut in parte vel in toto p spaciu Quadra- 
ginta diei^ post aliquod Festum Festor^ ^dco^ quo ut 



382 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. p>fert r solvi debeat q& tunc et deinceps hec pteens Dimissio 
V. 4. et Concessio vacua sit ac p nullo rleat r Aliquo in pteentn^ 
incont a riu inde non obstafi Aliquo statuto Actu ordinacoe 
pvisione pclainacoe sive restriccoe incont a riu inde ante- 
hac hit fact edit ordinat seu pvis Aut aliqua alia re causa 
vel matia quacumq, in aliquo non obstan In cujus rei etc 
T. K. apud Westm xxvij die February. 

p bre de privat sigirl etc. 



No. VI. 

YI. Anthony Bacon to Francis Bacon. . 

(Orig. at Lambeth Palace, 650, fol. 221.) 

Brother, 

I thought it meet to advertise you that my Lord of 
Essex, being come expressly yesterday, after dinner, to 
speak with the French ambassador and Sir Anthony 
Perez, not finding Sir Anthony Perez at his house, 
but word that he should repair to Walsingham House 
with all speed ; where he had two hours' conference 
with him, and, amongst other things, urged the matter 
you wot of at large, with no less judgment than devo- 
tion to my Lord's honour and profit, and good affection 
to us. His argument my Lord heard most attentively, 
and accepted most kindly of many right hearty thanks, 
assuring him that, at his return — which should be within 
two days— from the Court, he would resolve. The occa- 
sion was very fitly ministered by my Lord himself, by 
advertising Spencer that the Queen had signed at two 
of the clock, and had given him a hundred pounds in 
lands, simple fee, and 30£ in parks, which, for her quiet- 



LETTERS BY EARL OF ESSEX. 383 

ness' sake, and in respect of his friend, he was content App. 

to accept without any further contention. And so I wish VI. 

you as myself, 

Your entire loving brother, 

Anthony Bacon. 



No. VII. 
Essex to * * *. VII. 1. 

(Orig. at Lambeth Palace, 657, 90.) 

My Lord, 

By the advancement of Sir Thomas Egerton to 
the place of Lord-Keeper (in which choice I think my 
country very happy), there is void the office of Master 
of the Rolls. I do, both for private and public respects, 
wish Mr. F. B. to it before all men, and should think 
much done for her Majesty's service if he were so 
placed as his virtues might be active, which now lie as 
it were buried. What success I have had in commend- 
ing him to her Majesty your Lordship knows. I would 
not the second time hurt him with my care and kindness. 
But I will commend unto your Lordship his cause ; not 
as his alone, or as mine — his friend, but as a public cause, 
wherein your Lordship shall have honour to the world, 
satisfaction to see worthy fruit of your own work, and ex- 
ceeding thankfulness from us both. And so I rest, 

Your Lordship's cousin and friend, 

E. 



384 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. Essex to Sir John Fortescue. 

VII. 2. (Orig. at Lambeth Palace, 657, 90.) 

Cousin, 

I do commend unto you both present actions and 
absent friends — I mean those that are absent from me, so 
as I can neither defend them from wrong nor help to 
that right their virtue deserves. And, because an occa- 
sion offers itself before the rest, I will commend unto you 
one above the rest. The place is the Mastership of the 
Kolls; the man, Mr. Francis Bacon, a kind and worthy 
friend to us both. If your labours in it prevail, I will 
owe it you as a particular debt, though you may challenge 
it as a debt of the state. 

And so, wishing you all happiness, I rest, 

Your cousin and friend, 

E. 

Cousin, — I pray you remember my good Dr. Browne. 
I shall challenge you for a great unkindness if his suit 
succeed ill. 



No. VIII. 
VIII. 1. Extracts from the Council Eegister, April 25, 1614. 

(Orig. in Privy Council Office.) 

Present : — 
Lord Chancellor. 
Earl of Pembroke. 
Lord Wotton. 
Mr. Secretary Winwood. 
Sir Julius Caesar. 
Sir Thomas Lake. 



EXTRACTS FROM PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTERS. 385 

A Letter to Sir Francis Bacon, Knight, His Majesty's ^pp. 
Attorney-General. VTII 1 

We send you here enclosed the Petition of one 
Kichard Arrowsmith, his Majesty's servant, wherein he coin- 
plaineth unto us, that in February last a number of people 
gathered together in the night and, in disguised apparel, 
did riotously pull up and overthrow a hedge and ditch 
which he had caused to be made about a copse called 
Newland, for preservation of his Majesty's game in that 
part of the forest of Windsor ; and do pray and require 
you (if upon further information you shall find the offence 
to deserve it) to send for such and so many of the 
offenders as you shall think fit, and to proceed against 
them in the Star Chamber, the next term, in the behalf 
of his Majesty, according as is accustomed in cases of like 
nature. And so, &c. 

Council Eegister, Oct. 19, 1614. VIII. 2. 

(Orig. in Privy Council Office.) 

Ut Supra with the Lord Archbishop. 

A Letter to Sir Francis Bacon, Knight, His Majesty's 
Attorney- General. 
Whereas his Majesty hath taken notice of a great 
resort of gentlemen of quality and livelihood, together with 
their wives and families, unto the city of London, and 
other principal cities and towns of this realm, with a 
purpose (as it appeareth) to settle their habitation there, 
for saving of charges and other private respects. His 
Majesty, considering of his great wisdom how prejudicial 
these courses may prove to the general government of 
the kingdom, when the country shall be deprived of the 
assistance and presence of so many gentlemen, who for 

2 c 



386 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. the most part bear office or authority in the counties 
VIII. 2. where they dwell, besides the great decay of hospitality 
and other inconveniences that will ensue thereupon, is 
therefore pleased that a Proclamation shall be published, 
enjoining and commanding all such persons aforemen- 
tioned to repair unto their several dwellings in the country, 
before the last of November next, there to abide and 
continue as heretofore they have usually done, which we 
require you to draw accordingly and to make ready for 
his Majesty's signature with as much convenient expedi- 
tion as you may. And so, &c. 

(Orig. in Privy Council Office.) 
VIII. 3. At Whitehall, on Tuesday the 20th of February, 1615. 

Present : — 
The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. 
Lord Treasurer. Lord Bishop of Winchester. 

Lord Privy Seal. Lord Knollis. 

Duke of Lennox. Mr. Secretary Winwood. 

Lord Chamberlain. Mr. Secretary Lake. 

Earl of Mar. Mr. Chancellor of the Ex- 

Earl of Dunfermline. chequer. 

Master of the Kolls. 
Upon a difference depending at the Board between the 
Dutch Congregation of the town of Colchester and one 
William Goodwin and others of that town, as will appear 
by petitions offered to the Board by both parties. For- 
asmuch as the matter consisting of many parties will 
require a full and deliberate hearing for the better settling 
of the Trade of Bay and Say making in that place. 
Their Lordships have this day ordered that his Majesty's 
Attorney-General, calling all parties before him, do hear 
and examine the differences and allegations on both sides, 



EXTRACTS FROM PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTERS. 387 

and thereupon to make report of his opinion thereof, and App. 
what course he thinketh fit to be observed therein, in VIII. 3. 
writing, by Thursday next in the afternoon, that such 
further order may thereupon be taken as shall be ex- 
pedient. 

(Orig. in Privy Council Office.) VIII. 4. 

At the Court at Whitehall, on Wednesday in the 
afternoon, the 5th of April, 1615 : 

Present : — 
Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. 
Lord Chancellor. Mr. Secretary Win wood. 

Lord Treasurer. Mr. Chancellor of the Ex- 

Duke of Lennox. chequer. 

Lord Chamberlain. Lord Chief Justice. 

Lord Fenton. Mr. Chancellor of the 

Lord Enollis. Duchy. 

Sir Thomas Lake. 
William Martin, Kecorder of the city of Exeter, being 
heretofore sent for by order from their Lordships, and 
this day called unto the Board, and charged by his 
Majesty's Attorney-General to have lately written a His- 
tory of England, wherein were many passages so unaptly 
inserted as might justly have drawn some heavy and 
severe censure upon him for the same. On his humble 
submission and hearty repentance and acknowledgment 
of his fault, their Lordships were pleased to become 
mediators unto his Majesty for his grace and favour to be 
extended towards him, which being happily obtained, he 
is freely dismissed from all further attendance ; being first 
enjoined by their Lordships to manifest hereafter in some 
short declaration in writing (as he hath already done by 
words) the true sense and understanding he hath of his 
offence, together with his repentance for the same. And 



388 FRANCIS BACON. 

App. it is further ordered by their Lordships that the bond 
VIII. 4. which he sealed to his Majesty's use for his appearance at 
the Board should be cancelled and delivered unto him. 



No. IX. 

IX. Report by the Barons of the Exchequer, the Solicitor- 

General (Sir Francis Bacon), and the Eecorder of 
London, to the Privy Council. 

(Orig. in State Paper Office.) 

May it please your Lordships, 

We have received your honourable letters bearing 
date the 25th day of this instant month of June, and 
enclosed in the same a note of a suit which has been of 
late presented to his Majesty and by him referred to your 
Lordships' consideration : the substance of which suit is to 
have a warrant directed to some officer to demand and 
collect fines upon actions of debt and other finable actions 
to be sued in all other Courts of England (other than the 
Courts held at Westminster), concerning which your Lord- 
ships require us to certify you our opinions in all points 
at our speediest opportunity. We have therefore, accord- 
ing to your honourable directions, considered of the suit. 
And do find it a matter of so great importance as we 
must humbly pray leave to have time to confer with the 
rest of the Judges, that upon our joint conference your 
Lordships may have the more full satisfaction both for 
law and convenienCy. Humbly taking our leaves, this 28th 

of June, 1608. 

Your Lordships' to command. 



LONDON: MtTNTEO BX TVJLLTAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, 
AND CHARING CROSS. 






' Mr'33 



